Eden Riegel (born January 1, 1981 in Washington, DC) is an American actress.

Since 2000, she has played the role of Bianca Montgomery on the soap opera All My Children. In October 2000, Riegel's character became the only lesbian currently on the daytime serials when she came out to her mother on the program. She won the Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Female Newcomer in 2001.

Since then, Riegel has become a symbol in the gay community. Many former soap fans, including Ellen DeGeneres, have expressed renewed interest in All My Children since Bianca came out. In 2003, her story hit fever pitch when Bianca and her love interest, Lena Kundera (Olga Sosnovska) were scheduled to share the first lesbian kiss on American daytime television. In 2004, with Lena out of the picture, Bianca shared a kiss with close friend and confidante Maggie Stone (Elizabeth Hendrickson). She was awarded the first Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation award for Favorite OUT image of the year award in 2004.

During the baby swap storyline when Bianca's daughter was kidnaped and switched with the son of Babe Chandler (Alexa Havins) Riegel also played Bianca Montgomery on One Life to Live.

Before Riegel joined the show, she appeared in Les Misérables on Broadway, and attended Harvard University. While attending Harvard, she worked as a Congressional intern. Prior to joining the AMC she had a small role on the soap opera As The World Turns as an AIDS patcient and played a minor character in the feature film American Pie. She also did voice acting work in the film The Prince of Egypt.

She was nominated for three Daytime Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series" in 2001, 2002 and 2004 for her work on the soap.

In early 2005, Riegel decided to exit AMC to pursue other projects. Her last airdate is scheduled in February. Her friend an on screen love interest Elizabeth Hendrickson will exit with her. She has suggested to Soap Opera Digest magazine that she may return to the show in the future if her other project do not work out, or if the visit to the fictional town of Pine Valley is short enough to work around her schedual.

External links

• Eden Riegel's official website (http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~riegel/)