Maeghan Looney is a Chicago-based actress. Maeghan relocated from her native Indiana to the windy city upon the completion of her training and subsequent degree from Ball State University’s Department of Theatre and Dance. She has worked professionally within the Chicagoland area as well as the surrounding suburbs and Midwest region for nearly a decade. In that time she has originated roles in four world premiere productions and participated in the development of several new works. Often donning a corset and accent, Maeghan has a long history of performing classic characters. Not one to be pigeon holed, she has enjoyed a varied career, with roles ranging from the Disney princess to the gleeful embodiment of death; the long suffering alpha-wife of a cult leader to the seductive, man eating flight attendant; the Greek goddess of war to the conflicted, yet sweet as pie southern belle.

The Legend

Maeghan Leilani Looney was born on May 7, 1987 in Elkhart, Indiana to Leilani, an orthodontic treatment coordinator, and Ron Looney, a Pentecostal minister. With her father at the pulpit, mother at the organ, and brother on the drums, she grew up onstage so to speak. It was there that she witnessed the power and impact of storytelling: how the parable can entertain, teach, and inspire introspection, thought, and empathy. The church also nurtured a love of music. Under her mother’s choir direction, Maeghan grew up on gospel and would continue to sing in church, school, and state choirs throughout childhood.

At home, Maeghan was raised on the titans of golden age comedy: the Three Stooges, the Little Rascals, the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Peter Sellers, and personal favorites Abbott and Costello and namesake Looney Tunes. She developed an affinity for the bygone aesthetic of classic films which led to a love of classic literature and music. An enthusiastic reader, she fed her already vivid imagination everything from fantasy, science fiction, and historical dramas to DC and Marvel titles, Archie comics, and Sunday morning serials (affectionately dubbed the “funnies” section). Recreationally, she held down third base on the local softball team, ran cross country, played piano, video games, engineered impressive blanket forts, and channeled equal parts Macho Man Randy Savage and the Ultimate Warrior in homespun WWF inspired living room royal rumbles.

At school she excelled in English, creative writing, and art. As a teen she began to experiment with digital illustration and character design which led her to consider a career in animation before discovering the theatre. Access to the school’s arsenal of camera and editing equipment also peaked an interest in photo and cinematography. Her graduating class voted her most artistic and most likely to win an academy award. Then, having only performed stock characters in a handful of grade school melodramas and murder mystery comedies, and with no formal training, she auditioned and was accepted into the Ball State University Department of Theatre and Dance in Muncie, Indiana.

(To be continued….)