Intro

• Birthday: March 23, 1955
• Birth Place: Lawerence. Kanas
• Birth Name: Petrea Burchard

Also credited as:

• Celeste Burch
• Lily Pad

Biography

Petrea Burchard has been acting all her life. Her professional career began in Chicago at the famous Second City improv comedy nightclub, where she was a member of the National Touring Company . While in Chicago Petrea also appeared at the Steppenwolf Theatre (1985 Tony award winner for Best Regional Theater), and worked regularly at the Victory Gardens Theater (2001 Tony for Best Regional Theater). At Victory Gardens, she originated leading roles in "The God of Isaac ," "Mr. 80% ," and "The Escape Artist ," all by playwright James Sherman, and in "Gardinias and "Blum" by Nicholas Patricca .

In Los Angeles Petrea has continued to work at theaters such as the Hudson, Wooden O and Tiffany. She has also been a member of two Los Angeles area theater companies: the Alliance Repertory Company, where she also served as dramaturge, and the Knightsbridge Theater Company.

Ms. Burchard studied improvisation with the great Paul Sills and the equally great Del Close. Acting teachers have included Dennis Zacek of Victory Gardens, L.A.'s Fran Montano , and Terry Kinney of Steppenwolf. Petrea has also studied Shakespeare with Barbara Gaines of Chicago Shakespeare Repertory as well as with John Barton and members of the Royal Shakespeare Company at the British/American Drama Academy at Oxford, England.

Shakespeare credits include Bianca in "The Taming of the Shrew," Escalus the judge in "Measure for Measure," Tamora in "Titus Andronicus," and Cleopatra in "Antony and Cleopatra." She has even stepped in as a last-minute replacement in the role of Julius Caesar in Shakespeare's eponymous play at North Hollywood's Quantum Theatre.

Television appearances include The Guardian, Providence, Melrose Place, L.A. Law and Disney's Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, the TV Show. Film credits include Death Becomes Her from Universal Studios and A Man's Woman for the BBC. Independent films include Twenty-Nine and Carly's Sunflowers, and she recently starred in and co-produced the independent film Housebound, written and directed by her husband, filmmaker John Sandel .

Petrea's bread and butter is voice-over; she's done countless commercials as well as several radio plays, including Ellison's "'Repent, Harlequin,' Said the Ticktockman," opposite Robin Williams on National Public Radio. Petrea is well known as the English voice of Ryoko, the 2000 year old demon, in the Japanese anime cartoon Tenchi Muyo on the Cartoon Network. In the past she worked as a radio traffic reporter, and is currently the voice of Stater Brothers Markets in southern California.

Current writing projects include her first novel.

Petrea Burchard is a member of Actors' Equity Association, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and the Screen Actors Guild

Facts

1. Her roles on Tenchi Muyo!(dubbed) include: Ryoko Hakubi, and Zero(OAV final episodes only)
2. Petrea loved every member of the cast of Tenchi Muyo! and the show itself. Petrea began voice acting when she started doing oncamera acting and she then figured her voice talent was good, however Petrea still did several oncamera work, which she is equally good at.
3. Did several traffic reports for several LA area radio stations, one in particular(her biggest one) was K-Frog radio . She was known as Lily Pad, and featured on the Hoppy and Lily Show from 1998-2000.
4. Currently married to(as of November 3rd 2001) to Director/Writer/Producer John Sandel .
5. Has a dog.
6. Petrea performed in an episode of Lifetime's Strong Medicine but her scenes were removed.
7. Is the author of a story called "Things" which can be seen in the book of stories called A Cup of Comfort for Christmas . It was published by Adams Media and can be found at your local bookstore.