(This article was published in our Fall 2025 edition – The Film Issue. Read it online here.)

It’s a Wednesday night in Little Rock, and Raeden Greer is showing clips from De Niro movies and leading discussion among the students, all of whom are actors enrolled in the Arkansas Cinema Society’s Night School: Acting for Film + TV course at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. After taking the class through an exercise in which they may only speak in gibberish while doing scenes selected from a hat full of prompts, Raeden invites her students to workshop audition tapes. One man eagerly recruits a few of his fellow students to enact the scene he’ll be submitting to a casting director in another state. He’s auditioning for the role of an overburdened police officer, addressing the concerns of a few unruly teenagers.

There are three takes. In the first, it’s clear the group is just warming up. Raeden sits in the audience, a few rows back from the camera, and quietly evaluates his performance. When the scene ends, she gives him pointers about body language and calls for take two. The next attempt flows more smoothly. After some rousing discussion amongst the class on how they would approach the role, Raeden offers some words of constructive criticism, and asks the students to do the scene again.

During the third take, something different happens. The actors are sitting comfortably in the pauses between lines, drawing out suspense. There’s a silence that descends upon the room as the man workshopping his audition tape settles into the role of police officer. The entire class is rapt, watching the delivery of lines of dialogue like they are ensconced in movie theater recliners before the big screen. Once the scene has concluded, Raeden declares it finished and ready to submit. It’s clear that her technical expertise and teaching style have transformed the scene from wobbly to rock-solid. To someone who’s never seen how movies and television shows get made, the process might look something like magic.

Raeden’s teaching venture is the latest chapter in a long-running and far-reaching career in the entertainment industry. From roles on critically acclaimed series to more recent directing credits, she has slowly and steadily carved out a space of her own. Better-known characters Raeden has played include Lily from “The Host”, Pauline LaLaurie on the prolific “American Horror Story”, Charlotte in “Magic Mike XXL”, and Diane on “NCIS: New Orleans.” She has also starred in self-directed shorts “The Hollow” and the upcoming “I Love You This Much.” This year, two films she directed received awards. “Little Bit” won Best Documentary at Rock City Film Festival, and “The Hill We Climb” earned Best Documentary at Fort Smith International Film Festival. Her most recent accolade was bestowed by the Mid-America Arts Alliance — she won their “Catalyze” grant for ten thousand dollars.

Raeden entered the film industry after graduating from Arkansas Tech University on a full-ride scholarship, but she said she would have started sooner if not for the urging of her parents to get a four-year degree. Her time as a college student ended up broadening her creativity through courses on photography and film. She landed a job on campus editing a short documentary about a World War II veteran, learned how to manipulate footage, and found supplemental photos and videos that made it into the final cut.

Her interest in making movies continued to evolve post-graduation. Raeden spent time living in Atlanta, New York City, Los Angeles, and New Orleans, each city shaping and refining her creativity. In Atlanta, she connected with a group of creatives who taught her how to use more advanced cameras, and started writing her own scripts for the first time. The first film she wrote and produced was for a contest that challenged contestants to create a 60-second film. Raeden and her friends got together and made the movie in one night, with no budget. She refers to this as the kick-off of her writing; the first time she brought a creative vision into the material world. “Being in control of the story you’re telling is more cathartic,” she said of the differences between scriptwriting and acting.

While living in New York City, Raeden cultivated her storytelling skills. “I had so many new ideas in New York all the time,” she said. The city distinguished itself as intensely competitive, due to the volume of highly trained actors; but it was also rife with opportunities for education and development. Los Angeles was where she branched out into livestreaming, further diversifying her acting portfolio. “Each market has a different appeal,” she said while explaining the differences in each city’s film industry.

Raeden completed a shorter but significant stint in New Orleans. “New Orleans is full of character and ingrained culture you don’t find anywhere else. It adds another layer of interest. When I was working on American Horror Story, we would shoot in people’s historic homes across the city and in the French Quarter.” She appeared on the show for five episodes, spending up to four hours before each work day being plastered in zombie prosthetics and makeup and then shooting all night. “In that role I got killed twice- first I was hung in the street and then they cut off my head with a chainsaw.” (Using CGI, of course.)

Arkansas called Raeden home in 2020 after ten years of traveling. When she returned, there was an entirely new group of filmmakers on the scene. “After I made “The Hill We Climb,” I started getting to know people from square one again. I’m happy to have been welcomed back and brought into the fold,” she said. In her opinion, what sets Arkansas apart from the other locales is that filmmakers  are dedicated to making projects the very best they can be no matter the outcome.

“There’s not a lot of pretentiousness in our community here that is present elsewhere. We have scrappy filmmakers who are willing to jump in, regardless of budget or other obstacles, and get shit done.”

Shortly after coming back, Raeden began taking courses in drone piloting so that she could shoot aerial footage for her own films. It was during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and she was determined to use the time spent in lockdown expanding her repertoire — by learning about traditional flight patterns. After passing a test at the airport, Raeden became a Federal Aviation Administration certified drone pilot! She has gone on to use her piloting license to take footage for her own films, as seen in “The Hollow.” Raeden said that her motivation to get certified arose from a need to self-create as much of her work as possible. “I only do this for my own projects. Each project I’ve worked on has been a building block upon the previous one. I learn something new and the next thing inevitably gets scaled up – the crew and budget gets bigger, the final product is more polished.”

Much of Raeden’s work since moving back to Arkansas has been multi-credited. She balances manifold roles in the making of several more recent films; moving from screenwriter, to actress, to director, to editor with a finesse that is only cultivated through years of experience. Her desire to be involved at all levels of a project stems from inspiration from Orson Wells. “I feel drawn to him because his personality is similar to mine. He poured everything he had into his own projects. If he couldn’t find the money for his movies, he put his own money in.” Raeden said she is most interested in Wells, as well as David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick, because they share similar filmmaking processes and worldviews. “They did all the jobs that needed to be done.”

Raeden’s integration into the filmmaking community of Arkansas led her to cross paths with the Arkansas Cinema Society (ACS) in 2023. She was attracted by the organization’s impressive Filmland event. “It’s unlike anything else in the state of Arkansas,” she said of ACS support for filmmakers and actors. Her continued involvement in ACS events developed into her current position as the teacher of Night School: Acting for Film + TV. Raeden brings an industry-savvy approach to Arkansas locals, giving her students insight into how they might navigate both the technical and emotional aspects of acting. “There are no recipes or ‘right’ way to do it…. Each person’s instrument is different, and has to be tended to differently. I emphasize that as actors, we never want to perform a recitation. There’s so much more to being a good actor who’s interesting to watch.”

Her tactics have been paying off for Night School students. Several of them booked new gigs while enrolled in the most recent session of the class, including Taylor Holbert, who was selected for a role in a recent production called “The Mirror” made in Northwest Arkansas. Raeden herself was tapped for the role of a survival-oriented journalist in the short film, and acted alongside Taylor, who played a conniving serial killer bent on adding Raeden’s character to his list of victims. “I knew he was great before we walked on set,” Raeden said of her student’s performance. “I see the work he does in class, and he always surprises me.” 

Taylor said that Raeden’s class opened many doors for him. “I’m getting gigs! I’ve done a commercial, and a handful of short films with more planned! Raeden’s an excellent teacher who really pushes her students and gets people out of their comfort zones. I’ve learned about how to study a script and immerse yourself in a character, and technical industry stuff…I recommend the class.” 

Raeden’s purposeful approach to teaching and filmmaking is evident through the successes of her students and her own endeavors. She said that movies are the medium through which she can fully express herself. “I have images in my head that I want to frame up in a camera… I feel this is my purpose. For me, there is nothing else to do. With my students, I tell them that our job is to expand the empathy of the viewer and show them a new perspective. There’s a great need for that.” Raeden plans to continue building up Arkansas’ filmmaking community and enriching the region’s creative culture through her work. Attend an Arkansas film festival near you, and you may just see one of her movies on screen.

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