The Real Girl's Guide to Reena Dutt

On the "off-chance" you haven't heard of Reena Dutt, she's a versatile actress and producer who just finished the first season of the inventive, funny web series, The Real Girl's Guide to Everything Else. "Carmen Elena Mitchell, Jennifer Weaver, Luis Reyes and myself formed Off-Chance Productions in 2007. We really wanted to start creating work that affected us, and our personal interests," explains Dutt. "After watching the Sex and the City movie, we started wondering why there wasn’t any diversity in a show about New York City, and why the token person of color is a stereotypical gal who likes expensive purses. [That's] not familiar territory for our circle of friends … so after joking to Carmen about writing it, she wrote the first season in just a couple of days! After our team read it, we knew this was our next project. It represented every reason we formed Off-Chance for, and then some!"

The Real Girl's Guide is about Rasha (Robin Dalea), who wants to write a serious book about Afghan women's issues and realizes she may have to play the game—and play it straight—to make her dreams come true. "I’m not sure if it’s considered the lesbian SATC quite yet, but it has been received with open arms within that community, which we are very proud of," says Dutt, who plays Sydney on the wickedly funny series. "Only two of the five characters are lesbians and they are dating each other! [But] it is definitely empowering that we are being received well by women who represent strength and action, and enjoy the comedy that comes with it, too."

One thing Dutt thinks is important about a series like this is that it can help with "normalizing ideas that are not familiar to our immediate makeup. Just because the lead character is a lesbian, doesn’t mean we deal primarily with lesbian issues," she points out. "The story for the first season is about a woman whose personal interests go beyond the latest fashions and extend into the Afghan women’s rights struggle. She is yearning to create work of personal interest, and her literary agent doesn’t understand the values in fighting for a cause. There’s a lot of fear in the unknown, which is probably why the lesbian community has eaten our show up and wants a second serving—our lead is familiar territory. I like to compare it to my personal experience when auditioning: the Indian girl in the story generally is dealing with Indian-specific issues (i.e. arranged marriage, non-traditional career choices, etc.). My life experience goes well beyond that, and The Real Girl’s [Guide] normalizes those ideas—normalizes people of different colors, genders and sexuality, and surprises the audience by how similar these characters are to themselves!"

Reena Dutt

Cast of The Real Girl's Guide to Everything Else

Normalizing the idea of being an actress was quite the process for Dutt, who grew up in Arizona, the daughter of an engineer and an artist. "The first time I performed and really felt the inspiration behind it all was when I was working on a prose piece by Anne Sexton with my [acting] coach David Goyette in high school. I think between my high school drama teacher, Mel Olson, and David, I was really inspired. And as any young Desi in Chandler, Arizona, would … I ignored it, planning on a stable path to international finance," she says. "After being cast in several plays in college, I realized I had the bug and imagining myself in a career that I wasn’t passionate about for the next 50 years was daunting. [So] I learned about film theory and production, came out to L.A. and then headed to New York for training. [Now] I’m back in L.A. having a blast on both sides of the camera!" Was there the obligatory pressure from her parents to conform? "You’d have to ask my dad," giggles Dutt. "I’m definitely a product of my parents, and like them, I fight full-bloodedly for what I want!"

Dutt is also embracing the fight to increase Asian American visibility in film and television. "We are the next version of Asian Americans in the entertainment world," she says. "We went from Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's to Masi Oka in Heroes. In a span of 40 years things have vastly changed, and they will continue to change. September 11th created a massive influx of brown terrorists roles, and nine years later, we have [multiple] television pilots based around Indian characters—[Fox's] Nevermind Nirvana being one of them. The more exposure we have to diversity, the more diverse people there are working behind the scenes, the more [effective] all these projects will become in normalizing what once was 'foreign.' In turn, our youth will see their own face and journey as just another part of American society."

As to where people can see Dutt's face, she thrives on theatre, film, TV and the web! "If it’s got a purpose, chances are I will enjoy it greatly," she laughs. "I am with a local theatre company, Theatre of NOTE, and I opened Holy Ghost, by Jon Tuttle with them [on April 23]. I also recently wrapped a supporting role in [the indie film] Troublemaker by Geeta Malik…and, well, you’ll need to wait till after the summer for season two of The Real Girl’s Guide to Everything Else!

Learn more about Dutt and Off-Chance Productions' hilarious venture at www.therealgirlsguide.com.

Mala Bhattacharjee is currently news editor, columnist and blogger for Soap Opera Weekly magazine. When not interviewing daytime's bold and beautiful, she's perfecting her chana masala recipe and Netflixing Hindi films.