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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.
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 ).
Before Riegel joined the show, she appeared in Les Misérables on Broadway, and attended Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. It was founded on September 8, 1636 by a vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, making it the oldest post-secondary s. While attending Harvard, she worked as a Congressional internIn North America, an intern is one who works in a temporary position with an emphasis on education rather than merely employment, making it similar in some respects to an apprenticeship. Interns are usually college or university students, and may be eithe.
In 2004, she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy award for Outstanding Younger Actress.