Paige Spara is making a name for herself in Hollywood
Spara, center, sporting a straw hat and overalls for the fourth grade play “Gone Fishing” at Washington Park Elementary School. At Spara’s left is Jalea Province and right is Loren Englert.
Mark Marietta
Washington native Paige Spara revisits the LGI theater in Washington High School, remembering the productions she was a part of as a student there.
On a recent visit home to Washington, actress Paige Spara recalled delivering a monologue during a voice class at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City.
“My voice and speech teacher just looked at me and she said, ‘What accent is that? Where are you from?’ laughs Spara, a 2008 graduate of Washington High School.
Spara has worked hard to shed her Pittsburghese, but she remains loyal to her Southwestern Pennsylvania roots.
In fact, the hit ABC medical drama “The Good Doctor,” on which Spara plays the role of Lea, Dr. Shaun Murphy’s (Freddie Highmore) neighbor and love interest, decided to incorporate some of her Pittsburgh-isms.
In one episode, a Pittsburgh Penguins jersey is seen hanging in Spara’s closet, and she explains the term “nebby” to Highmore, saying, “It’s a Pittsburgh thing.”
Also a “thing” is Spara’s acting career. The 28-year-old is making a name for herself in Hollywood – she has appeared in six episodes of “The Good Doctor,” the most-watched show on television.
In 2015, Spara starred in “Kevin From Work,” an ABC Family network sitcom – her first television role. Before that, she appeared in several commercials, including for Forevermark Jewelry, Sally Hansen Nails and Volkswagen Golf. On film, Spara played a bartender in the 2017 romantic comedy “Home Again,” and she will appear later this year in the independent movie “She’s in Portland.” Her start in acting came when she joined Kids’ Theatre Works at age 12.
“I just loved the lights and the stage. I never thought, ‘I’m going to be an actor.’ I always thought I was an actor, and all of the plays I did, everything I did, I was just doing what I was supposed to do,” Spara says. “I was very naive about acting, and I swear that’s what got me through college and my first couple of years in L.A.”
Brandy LaQuatra was a first-year theater teacher at Wash High when Spara was a freshman, and she knew Spara was a special talent. “Paige was captivating,” LaQuatra says. “She had this great smile and effervescent personality, always bubbly, always joyful and very positive. She was beautiful and talented and driven. She has everything you want in an actress.”
Spara honed her theater chops at Pittsburgh Community Theater and Irondale Theater in New York. She attended Point Park University’s Theater Conservatory for two years before she transferred to Marymount, where she earned a degree in theater performance in 2012.
She’s taken some unusual jobs: Spara was a “virtual assistant” – a 3-D surround-sound hologram – for international passengers at Washington Dulles International Airport, and she worked as a “Gossip Girl” tour bus guide in New York City. She headed to Los Angeles in 2012, where she auditioned for two years before she landed a lead role in “Kevin From Work.”
“The Good Doctor,” in which Highmore plays a surgeon with autism and savant syndrome, has resonated with viewers, and Spara’s performance has earned praise – and a following. She receives tweets from fans, including those in the autism community, like this: “It’s so sad to see Shaun’s one and only friend move away! It’s heartbreaking Lea’s the friend I wish I had. Everyone with autism or aspergers like me deserve someone like Lea. #TheGoodDoctor”
“I feel a responsibility to get it right. I feel very honored to be a part of this show,” Spara says. “Your greatest hope as an actor is to be a part of something that really moves and influences people in some way. And the fact that this show has such a positive impact and a positive message – that you can overcome challenges and surpass people’s expectations for you – is incredibly rewarding. I feel very, very lucky to be a part of it. It’s been incredible.”
Spara, the middle daughter of Kevin and Kim Spara of Washington, credits her mother with helping her land the role of Lea. She wasn’t in Los Angeles when the breakdown for the part of Lea was sent out, so Spara’s mom read Highmore’s lines while Spara read Lea’s lines and recorded the scene. “It was hilarious. The only decent lighting I had was in my bathroom, so we set up the camera and tripod there. I felt so comfortable reading with my mom,” Spara says. “I tell her I couldn’t have gotten the role without her.”
Currently, Spara is auditioning for television roles during pilot season, but she is also diving into other parts of the industry, including working on a podcast called “The Inbetween” and writing.
Despite her increasingly hectic schedule, Spara makes time for family and friends in Washington.
She talks with or texts her parents and siblings, older sister Taylor and younger brother Jesse, “literally every day.”
“She’s very grounded,” says Loren Englert of Finleyville.
The two have been friends “since we were born,” Englert says, and Spara accompanied Englert’s family on summer vacation for several years.
“Being connected to her friends and family back here is very important to Paige,” Englert says. “She finds a way to stay connected because that’s the way she was brought up. When she’s home, even if it’s for a week, she makes sure every family member and friend is hugged and visited or talked to. She’s still very much the same Paige. She’s a genuine and loyal person. She really knows what she wants, and she’s driven and has always had a determination to succeed.”
Spara says her parents also instilled in her a work ethic, and at times she juggled as many as three jobs – including the typical New York City waitress gig – to pay rent and bills.
“Nothing was handed to me. I think that’s why I am where I am, because my parents had a strong work ethic and I was expected to work for anything I wanted,” Spara says.
She’s grateful that her parents (especially Kim, who chauffeured her to and from acting classes, rehearsals and performances) and teachers in the Washington School District encouraged her acting passion, despite how hard it can be to break into the field.
Spara recalled her fifth-grade teacher, Lorraine Kelly, then the head of the drama department, letting her rummage through the costumes and props she stored in the back of the classroom, and having long discussions about movies.
In high school, Spara, along with LaQuatra and now-retired head of the English department and theater teacher Judith Totty, spearheaded efforts to renovate and convert the Large Group Instructional (LGI) room into a theater that included – for the first time – a stage.
“My parents and those mentors at school nurtured my ideas and opinions, and told me that my ideas were doable. Thanks to them, I literally thought and believed that I could do anything I set out to do,” Spara says.
When she isn’t working, the Burbank resident laces up her boots and hikes through canyons in Southern California (she confessed that once, when she was still new to L.A., she and her mother trekked for more than two hours to reach the iconic Hollywood sign because she didn’t realize a road led to the site).
Sitting in a chair in the LGI room at Wash High, Spara prepared for this magazine photo shoot.
Her mom, who tagged along for the interview, said to Spara, “Flip up your hair, Paige.”
Spara rolled her eyes – and flipped her hair.
She is a rising Hollywood star, but Spara still listens to her mom, n’at.