Sarah Stouffer

Sarah Stouffer is an American actress best known for her lead role in the independent coming-of-age 2010 film Bloomington, in which she played the undergraduate Jackie Kirk who becomes romantically involved with psychology professor Catherine Stark (Allison McAtee). Early life Stouffer is originally from Vacaville, California, where she performed in musical theatre growing up. She moved to Los Angeles at the age of 19, working in a fondue restaurant until her acting career took off. Education Stouffer was home schooled. She studied and performed with the Solano Youth Theatre. Career With largely theatre work under her belt, and no film experience, Stouffer was cast in the lead role of Jackie Kirk in the 2010 film Bloomington, written and directed by Fernanda Cardoso. She later joked that being booked for the role was "beginner's luck". Producer Jason Shumway admitted that he initially had doubts about her playing the role as she looked so young to be dating a lecturer. "It does make it a little more controversial, I think," he added. Bloomington toured the lesbian and gay film festival circuit and Stouffer won the Outstanding Emerging Talent Award in the 2011 FilmOut Programming Awards. Guest roles on established television series, including Bones and Criminal Minds, followed. She also landed more film roles, including the comedy-horror Chastity Bites and the television movie A Cinderella Christmas. In 2015, she played a recurring role, as Tess Ritter, in the ABC series Switched at Birth. Four years later, she had a lead role in the 2019 short Suicide Date, directed by Doug Hurley, which won Audience Award Overall Fest and Audience Award Fusion Shorts at Dances With Films in Los Angeles.