Wendy Braun is a working actor, mindset coach, and creator of the Success Breakthrough workshop featured in Forbes — but this episode is really about the moment she sat in her car outside a preschool, ready to quit the business, and chose to stay.
Working since 1995 with credits on Grey’s Anatomy, This Is Us, Atypical, and Criminal Minds, Wendy built a parallel life coaching actors through the inner game of auditioning — writing and recording her own guided meditations, building workshops, and helping thousands of actors shift from proving to playing.
Now she’s on Jury Duty Season 2 as the villain, and her audition story is a masterclass: a 24-hour self-tape turnaround the day after a 10-day meditation retreat, a live callback where she brought apples with lime and Bristol Farms chicken, and a booking that arrived 30 years into her career — when she finally stopped needing it.
We also talk about self-tape vs. in-person prep, memorization, motherhood and ambition, and why “nerves are just excitement without the breath.”
These are the unforgettable stories that landed Wendy Braun right here.
About Wendy Braun:
Wendy Braun currently stars as formidable private equity boss Elizabeth Prescott in Prime Video’s Emmy-nominated Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat, with TV critic Brittany Frederick calling her performance “Emmy-worthy.”
An accomplished actress with a career spanning three decades, Wendy has more than 80 television and film credits, 100 commercials, and thousands of voiceovers. Her credits include four seasons on Netflix’s Atypical, This Is Us, Grey’s Anatomy, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Mentalist, Castle, and Documentary Now!
Alongside her acting career, Wendy is a Forbes-featured entrepreneur and founder of a global personal-development company. She has taken the mindset, resilience, and peak-performance principles that have helped her build a sustainable career and turned them into a proven methodology taught to thousands of creatives in more than 25 countries. Her students have gone on to book series regular roles, Broadway, the West End, films, television, national commercials, and secure top representation.
A sought-after speaker and repeat guest expert at the Television Academy, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, and Women In Film, Wendy’s work has been featured in Forbes, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, People, and Entertainment Weekly.
Credits:
- Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat
- Grey’s Anatomy
- This Is Us
- Atypical
- Criminal Minds
- Lost
- The West Wing
- Castle
- It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
- The Mentalist
Guest Links:
- IMDB: Wendy Braun, actress
THAT ONE AUDITION’S LINKS:
For exclusive content surrounding this and all podcast episodes, sign up for our amazing newsletter at AlyshiaOchse.com. And don’t forget to snap and post a photo while listening to the show and tag me: @alyshiaochse & @thatoneaudition
- PUBLIC POP UP NOVEMBER 10th: FREE WHAT’S MY FRAME
- THE BRIDGE FOR ACTORS: Become a WORKING ACTOR (50% off special)
- THE PRACTICE TRACK: Membership to Practice Weekly
- WENDY’S SUCCESS IN THE AUDITION ROOM: 5 min FREE MEDITATION
- CONSULTING: Get 1-on-1 advice for your acting career from Alyshia Ochse
- COACHING: Get personalized coaching from Alyshia on your next audition or role
- INSTAGRAM: @alyshiaochse
- INSTAGRAM: @thatoneaudition
- WEBSITE: AlyshiaOchse.com
- APPLE PODCASTS: Subscribe to That One Audition on Apple Podcasts
- SPOTIFY: Subscribe to That One Audition on Spotify
EPISODE CREDITS:
- HOST/PRODUCER: Alyshia Ochse
- WEBSITE & GRAPHICS: Chase Jennings
- SOCIAL: Alara Cerikcioglu
