Nicola Peltz

I have six brothers and one sister, and I was an ice hockey player when I was younger. I think my dad thought I was going to be in the women's league for ice hockey. But, I totally fell in love with drama in grade school, and I asked my mom if I could get involved with it.

When I was 12, I got a manager, but my mom was against it. It took a lot of convincing. But when I got a job at Manhattan Theatre Club, I think she saw how passionate I was about it and that I worked really hard - and now she's super supportive.

When I wrote my stories in elementary school, I signed them all 'Karen E. Bender' with the squiggly 'E.' I wanted, from an early age, to be a writer, and that name - that E - was a way of pretending I knew how to do it.