Jennifer Ferrin

Hometown: Snellville, Georgia

Currently: Making her Broadway debut juggling three distinct roles—Annabella, a German spy; Margaret, a Scottish farm wife; and Pamela, a classically cool British blonde—in the Broadway comedy/mystery The 39 Steps.

Northern Lights: Raised 20 minutes north of Atlanta, the accent-less Ferrin confesses, "I was really against being Southern when I was growing up. I don't know why—It wasn't like, 'I've gotta get out of here,' but I knew I had more of a desire than a lot of my friends to see what else was out there in the world." A talented pianist and star of high school musicals such as Pippin and Working, Ferrin studied first at the College of Charleston and then at North Carolina School of the Arts, where she earned a drama degree. A decade later, she's come full circle about having roots in the Peach State: "It's so much more charming to me, and I appreciate it so much more. I miss it!"

Around the World: Ferrin never needed a survival job in New York: Before graduation, she landed a three-year contract as Jennifer Munson on the CBS soap As the World Turns. "It was such a gift to have a job right out of school," she says of a role that brought her two Daytime Emmy nominations. Her front-burner character faced drug addiction and had a baby fathered by her stepdad ! but, like World's previous Emmy-honored redhead, Julianne Moore, Ferrin chose to depart at the end of her contract. "Anytime you leave a really good job it's a difficult decision," she says now. "But soaps work so quickly, you end up repeating yourself, and I like to be challenged. It was probably the hardest job I'll ever have—I never have a problem now memorizing lines!"

Guesting with the Stars: While still in college, Ferrin played a young Vanessa Redgrave in the TV film The Locket. "I was wearing a period dress from the '30s, and she told me her dad would come back from working in the States and bring boxes and boxes of dresses that looked exactly like the one I was wearing," Ferrin recalls. The young actress shared an airplane scene with James Van Der Beek in Dawson's Creek, played Stanley Tucci's love interest in the short-lived TV series 3 lbs. and developed Stockholm Syndrome as bank robber John Leguizamo's hostage in the miniseries The Kill Point. "I had to sit on the floor of a bank for five days, but working with him made it worth it," she says of Leguizamo. "He's a really good actor, so creative and present."

39 Steps to Broadway: Landing the demanding trio of female roles in Patrick Barlow's clever send-up of Hitchcock's classic film was an incredible break for Ferrin, who had never acted onstage professionally. It helped that the British director of The 39 Steps, Maria Aitken, had no preconceived ideas about whom to cast. "Maria could see what the piece needed, and she took a risk on me," says Ferrin, who mastered three accents for her audition. A satiric version of the spy film's convoluted plot is enacted by a cast of four, with minimal props and plenty of darting about the stage. "I had no idea how physical the show would be," Ferrin says with a laugh. "The [performance] itself goes by very quickly, but it takes a toll on your body. Running around in heels is not recommended."

Stagestruck: "The beautiful thing about this play is that it's a throwback to what theater can do that film can't—the fun you can have with a minimal amount of technology," Ferrin says of the old-fashioned appeal of The 39 Steps. Unwigged, she's unrecognizable at the stage door, which, she insists, is totally fine. "I'm I private person, so I love that," he says of maintaining her anonymity. "On the soap, my character's name was the same as mine, so people would [call out] at airports, or when I was back home in the south. Being an actor is about morphing into other characters, so for me, this is great." When her first Broadway gig ends, Ferrin wouldn't mind returning to her musical roots. "I'm not a big dancer, but I love smart musicals like Sondheim's, where you just have to sing because words aren't enough on their own," she says. "If there's an opportunity for something like that, I would jump on it."