Marieve Herington gets her start on Charlie's last season by Dominik Kurek Oakville Beaver Staff Artscene 21 | Friday, June 14, 2013 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com "Connected to your Community" O akville native Marieve Herington who now lives in Los Angeles is guest starring in the final season of Disney Channel's Good Luck Charlie, which began airing in late April. Herington is playing Winnie, a cooking partner to Jason Dolley's PJ Duncan at school, who becomes his friend and possibly more. "It's a really funny show, even though it's a kids show. I've started watching more episodes and saying, `Man, this is really well written.' I see why it's done so well. It's the number one show on the channel. There are jokes on the show for adults and kids," Herington said. Herington made her first appearance on the show on the May 5 episode. She appears again this Sunday on the U.S. station. The episode, called Sister Sister, will soon air on the Family Channel in Canada. Good Luck Charlie tracks the lives of the Duncan family as it adjusts to the births of the fourth and fifth children in the family, Charlotte "Charlie" and Toby. In each episode, Teddy (Bridgit Mendler) creates a video diary with advice for Charlie and each diary ends with someone saying: "Good luck, Charlie." Herington said there is added pressure to come into a show that's had continued success. "You're always nervous when there's a show that's this successful. They have their rhythm and group and cohesiveness that you go, `Am I going to fit in with them? Are they going to have their relationships and are people not going to be welcoming, or whatever'," she said. "But, that was so not true. Everybody just seems wholly dedicated to making the best show possible. You can see that in the cohesiveness of the cast, the actors that play the family. The director is so supportive." She said thanks to the supportive environment of the show, she didn't give the pressure a second thought once the production started rolling and she felt like part of the team. Herington grew up in Oakville and attended St. Mildred's-Lightbourn School. From a very young age, she had a passion for music and acting. Since the age of nine, she was a member of the professional performers' union ACTRA after appearing in a series of Canadian Tire commercials. She took piano lessons growing up, but her passion was in singing, so she fronted a local jazz band, which performed in the community regularly, at events such as Midnight Madness, the Oakville Jazz Festival and the Waterfront Festival. She took drama at the University of Actor Marieve Herington stops by the Oakville home she grew up in and chats with the Beaver about her recurring role on Disney Channel's hit sitcom Good Luck Charlie. photo by Nikki Wesley Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog) Toronto and worked in the city, getting jobs as a voice actor, doing voice overs, audiotapes and more. Then, in the middle of taping the 2009 animated comedy series Pearlie, produced in Toronto by Nelvana, she moved to Los Angeles, and flew back and forth between Oakville and Hollywood on a regular basis for the recording here and her work in Los Angeles. Her voice can be heard on numerous animated programs, including on Fox's recent film Ice Age: Continental Drift, in which she voices the little furry creatures called the Hyrax. She also formed a new jazz band in L.A., which continues to perform on weekends. During the week, Herington has a busy schedule as she acts, voice acts, and records voice-overs and audiotapes. In fact, she was in the middle of recording a long novel trilogy when she auditioned for Good Luck Charlie. "I was like man, this role is so cute," she said. "I was thinking, `Oh, gosh, I would really love to get this.' But in all honesty, my deadlines were so tight, I said if I get this it will be a disaster; if I don't get this, it will be a disaster." She has a small recording studio at home in Los Angeles, much like she had back home in Oakville in a closet, and was able to record her voice work after the Good Luck Charlie tapings and on the weekends. Staying busy and constantly connected, she said, is essential in L.A., as many jobs often go to the first responder. "People really do work 24/7 and you have to be available 24/7. I couldn't come (to Oakville) without bringing my microphone setup because I had four auditions to do this morning," she said on her recent visit to her hometown. She also hosted a travel show for 11 days, which hit a new city every day. She kept her portable recording studio with her the entire time, so she would not miss out on work opportunities. She said actors are not only working on today's job, but they're working on getting tomorrow's job as well. "That's the thing I like about L.A. The actors know that the word `business' isn't show business. You have to be very proactive. Yes, you can have this team of 10 agents/managers/what-have-you, but you have to be the CEO of your own business," she said. "You have to run it like any other business if you want to do it, really, as a full-time job and not be a waiter or a barista or something. I'm really lucky to be full-time. That was the dream from the very first Oakville Beaver article that I want to act and sing and that's it." Herington first appeared in the Beaver at age nine when she performed at a local stage production. Herington said she gets occasionally recognized for her recurring role on the CBS hit How I Met Your Mother, on which she played Betty, a student to Josh Radnor's Ted Mosby. Her character has since graduated and no longer appears on new episodes, but appears in reruns to this day. She can also be recognized for her on-camera roles on Modern Family, The New Normal and Graceland. Taping Good Luck Charlie was a new and fun challenge for her, as it was the first time she's been filmed in front of a live audience. She said the actors feed off the energy of the audience, who laugh at the jokes and are being further entertained by a comedian in between the tapings. "But, it's also the stress of an extra 200, 300 eyes to not mess it up. I thought I would be so scared, but it was just really fun," she said. "Because they're there, you have to know where your jokes are and your laughter is, because you have to pause. But, you have to keep the scene going." Furthermore, when a joke doesn't work on the audience, the show writers rework it on the fly and the part gets shot again with the actor having to remember the new lines. For more information about the actor, visit www.marieve.ca. Dominik Kurek can be reached at dkurek@ oakvillebeaver.com or followed on Twitter at @ DominikKurek.