Rebecca Blasband (born c. 1968) is an American singer-songwriter, screenwriter, and television personality known as a cast member on '' The Real World: New York'', the first season of MTV's reality television show '' The Real World''.

Early life

Rebecca Blasband was born and raised in

New Hope, Pennsylvania New Hope is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The population was 2,612 at the 2020 census. New Hope is located approximately north of Philadelphia, and lies on the west bank of the Delaware River at its confluence with Aquetong Creek. ...

, to a psychiatrist father and a German immigrant mother who runs an antique store in Philadelphia, to which her family moved to when Blasband was 13. She attended

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

and worked as an actress with playwright

David Mamet David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, filmmaker, and author. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1984) and '' Speed-the-Plow'' (1988). He first gained cri ...

's theater company. Returning to music, she formed a band with

Adam Schlesinger Adam Lyons Schlesinger (October 31, 1967 – April 1, 2020) was an American musician, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He was a founding member of the bands Fountains of Wayne, Ivy, and Tinted Windows, and was a key songwriting contri ...

, the leader of

Ivy ''Hedera'', commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and ...

, saying of the group's sound, "It was sort of Manchester-pop stuff. But after a while I started getting into

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

and things like that, and my direction kind of changed."Becky: The Real World: New York
MTV. 1992. Retrieved November 29, 2011.

''The Real World''

In 1992, Blasband, then 24, was cast in '' The Real World: New York'', the first season of MTV's long-running reality television series, '' The Real World'', for which she was paid $2,500. She was later cast in the 2021 reunion series, '' The Real World Homecoming: New York'', in which the original cast were reunited in the same New York loft they originally lived in. After watching a clip from the original series in which Blasband and castmate

Kevin Powell Kevin Powell (born April 24, 1966) is an American writer, activist, and television personality. Powell is the author of 14 books, including ''The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy's Journey into Manhood'' and ''When We Free the World'' publis ...

got into a heated debate about racism, the two again discussed the topic. Blasband reacted badly to criticisms from other castmates about her views on the topic, and walked off of the show in episode three.

After ''The Real World''

Warner/Chappell Music Warner Chappell Music, Inc. is an American music publishing company and a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group. Warner Chappell Music's catalogue consists of over 1.4 million compositions and 65,000 composers, with offices in over 40 countries. ...

signed Blasband to a publishing contract and financed an album entitled ''The Rebecca Blasband''. She moved to

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Colorado in March 1995, and has opened for

Edwyn Collins Edwyn Stephen Collins (born 23 August 1959) is a Scottish musician, producer and record label owner from Edinburgh, Scotland. Collins was the lead singer for the 1980s post-punk band Orange Juice, which he co-founded. After the group split in ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blasband, Becky 1967 births Living people The Real World (TV series) cast members The Challenge (TV series) contestants