Gloria Elizabeth Reuben (born June 9, 1964) is a Canadian-American actress, producer, and singer. She is well-known for her role as Jeanie Boulet on the medical dramaER (1995–1999, 2008), for which she was twice nominated for an Emmy Award, and for portraying Elizabeth Keckley in the 2012 Steven Spielberg–directed film Lincoln.
Gloria Elizabeth Reuben was born on June 9, 1964 in Toronto, Ontario, to Pearl Avis (Mills), a classical singer, and Cyril George Reuben, a civil engineer. Her parents are both Jamaican-born.[1] Her father was mostly Jewish (with Ashkenazi and Sephardi roots), though he also had some African ancestry; her mother is of mostly African descent.[2][3] Her father, an elderly widower with five adult children when he married her mother,[1] died when she was young.[4][5][6][7] Her parents had split up before his death. Reuben was the subject of a segment of Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s television genealogy series Finding Your Roots.[1]
Gloria was one of six children.[8] Her older half-brother, Denis Simpson, was an actor and children's television host and died in 2010.[5] Her younger brother David died in 1988.[9] Reuben details her relationship and experience with the deaths of her brothers in her 2019 memoir My Brothers' Keeper.[10]
Reuben began her career as an actress after having a few jobs as a model and in television advertisements.
Reuben came to prominence on the American television series ER as Jeanie Boulet, an HIV-positive physician assistant on the hospital's staff. She was a guest star throughout the first season and was promoted to full-time cast member at the beginning of the second. She continued that role until early in the sixth season. In 2008, Reuben returned to ER for one episode during its 14th season. She has stated that this role led to her HIV/AIDS activism.[11] In 1996, she was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World.[12]
Reuben again held a major role in a television series when she starred as FBI agent Brooke Haslett in 1-800-Missing (2003–2004). She later starred as Rosalind Whitman in the TNT series Raising the Bar.
In October 2014, it was announced that Reuben had joined the cast of the USA Network series Mr. Robot.[16] Reuben plays Dr. Krista Gordon, the psychiatrist of the show's unstable main character, Elliott.[17] The show premiered on in June 2015. She acted in all four seasons of the show. At first a recurring role,[16] Reuben's character was upgraded to a season regular for the fourth and final season.
In 1999, Reuben acted in an off-Broadway production of The Vagina Monologues. In 2006, she starred as Condoleezza Rice in the play Stuff Happens at the Public Theater. The following year, she won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actress, the preeminent honour for off-Broadway productions, for her portrayal. In 2008, she returned to the Public Theater for Conversations in Tusculum.[18]
Reuben is a regularly performing jazz singer and pianist. She released her first record, Just for You, in December 2007.[19] Her second album, Perchance to Dream, was released in April 2015;[20] it was her first jazz record. Her latest album, For All We Know, was released on February 14, 2020, on the MCG Jazz recording label, where she is accompanied by guitarist and Grammy winning producer Marty Ashby.[21][22] She performed all around New York City in the fourth quarter of 2019 to promote her upcoming record.[21][23][24]
Author
On November 19, 2019, Reuben released a memoir, My Brothers' Keeper, detailing her journey and an exploration of the life she shared with her two brothers, as well as her emotions and experiences after their sudden deaths.[10]
Reuben is a committed social activist. In large part due to her role as an HIV-positive character in ER, she continues to raise awareness about the HIV/AIDS pandemic, lobbying for increased advocacy and speaking at several major fundraising events.[25] She also takes great interest in global issues, predominantly climate change, nature, and human rights.[26] Gloria Reuben is the president of Waterkeeper Alliance, an organization that strengthens and grows a global network of grassroots leaders protecting everyone’s right to clean water.[27] She is also a special adviser on climate change for The Climate Reality Project, former United States vice president Al Gore's environmental organization. She was formerly on the board for the National Wildlife Federation.[28] Reuben is also on the Leadership Council for the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights.[8]
^Profile, interfaithfamily.com; accessed November 27, 2014.
^ ab"Gloria!". Chatelaine. March 1999. Archived from the original on March 1, 2012. Retrieved August 18, 2010. Unfortunately, the interracial Jamaican family – her father was white, her mother black – was a conspicuous addition to the very white, very conservative community. "The realities of being a mulatto kid in London or Scarberia weren't always easy," says Reuben's half-brother Denis Simpson...
^ abWilliams, Kam (August 28, 2008). "Gloria Reuben: The Raising the Bar Interview with Kam Williams". The Sly Fox Film Reviews. Retrieved September 14, 2008. At 18, she won the Miss Black Ontario beauty pageant, although the crown did not come without controversy, as some people questioned whether she was deserving because one of her parents was white.
