Rylee Cravens

Rylee Cravens is an American actress. Cravens portrayed Savannah Swanson on Pureflix series Up on High Ground.

## About

**Rylee Marie Cravens** (born February 7, 1998) is an American actress, musician, and licensing manager in the film and television entertainment field in Los Angeles.

Cravens is best known for her award winning role for Best Actress playing Savannah Swanson on the television series Up on High Ground (2014–2015).

## Supporting roles and Education

Rylee began acting at age 10 in independent films and TV  concurrently while playing select soccer ultimately for a total of 12 years in the Illinois and greater St. Louis Missouri area. She was cast into her first acting role in the St. Louis independent feature film "Hercules: The Brave and the Bold" in 2012 which was released in 2013, alongside her two sisters Molly and Cali.

In 2012 Cravens began acting in the short film *To Inflict* as an the character Summer Swanson an office Intern in the Elizabeth Wiegard directed film that would be selected in the 7th Indie Fest USA film festival in Garden Grove, California in 2013.

At the time, assistant director Bryan Kreutz who helped cast Cravens, saw something more in her for a lead role he had in mind a year later that was the TV series Up on High Ground after also casting her in a short film "To Inflict". Rylee who is also a musician; playing the Saxophone and Piano, is also a talented singer. Rylee sang the vocals in the opening credits title theme for the TV series she starred in "Up on High Ground". Having graduated from California State University, Northridge in 2019 and after receiving further critical praise, following her success with independent films and television, Rylee has been appearing in big-budget Hollywood films.

Cravens has worked for several years donating her time to the Los Angeles community as a mentor and educator for Nonprofit organizations, working with School on Wheels and 826LA. Cravens helped students to achieve their educational goals, understand economic empowerment through the education of children and community outreach and also provided students with access to tutoring, private academic advising sessions, and school essentials on her own time as a community leader.

## Up on High Ground

Rylee Cravens portrayed the High School Sophomore character Savannah Swanson for the "Up on High Ground" Family drama series run of all 9 episodes from 2014-2015. Rylee won the 2020 roku Detaron TV Best Actress award for her role as Savannah Swanson in "Up on High Ground".
Cravens was the highest billed female character in the cast for the family and faith based TV series *Up on High Ground*, as the co-star and playing the character Savannah. *Up on High Ground* marks the third time that Brayden Patterson, Joe McGettigan, Bryan Kreutz and and Erin Morris have worked together alongside sisters Rylee and Molly Cravens. The first was the 2013 Indie Fest USA qualifying short film, *To Inflict*, and the second was the feature film *Hercules: The Brave and the Bold*. Cravens appeared in every episode of the series that ran on several The CW TV affiliates in syndication and Pure Flix Entertainment from 2014-2015.

Kreutz, who worked closely with Cravens in two previous films, knew she would be the perfect fit to play this lead girl role without an audition, stating “She was your A-typical American popular girl and that's what we cast her for”.

The series opening title sequence theme was written by Matt Griffin and originally expected to be sung by a male voice. Producer Bryan Kreutz specifically wanted a unique female voice so he asked Cravens and she lent her voice with multiple delivery options. Cravens recorded the vocals at a St. Louis county radio station studio in October 2013 during the early production of the series. Coincidentally, the recording studio was located in the same building where Rylee's younger sister Molly was taping a scene for *Up on High Ground*. The on location scene in a school counselors office, was located 2 floors up in the building and taped on the same night Rylee recorded the theme.

Cravens offered some of her own personal wardrobe to wear for the costuming as her age and attire was perfect for the role of a high-school er. The first short meeting on set with producer Bryan Kreutz had her wearing her own casual red summer dress for the second of two scenes filming that first day in 2013. This red summer dress was associated with Cravens character Savannah as Kreutz stated as "A truly effective costume provides character information even before the character speaks." The red dress can be seen in all three TV series trailers released and through many of the episodes.

Upon the completion of the nine episode series run, Co-Creator Kreutz considered a spin off series with Rylee Cravens as the lead along with Erin Morris to continue their on screen chemistry at the forefront of a weekly program.

## Personal life and career

Rylee is also a musician; particular instruments she plays include the Saxophone and Piano. Cravens has won several personal and team awards playing Soccer, particularly having been a leader in assists for several years in the region while at her high-school.

Almost immediately upon completion of the series *Up on High Ground,* Cravens selected California State University, Northridge as her choice to get a degree. For a couple years into colllege Cravens took a short break from acting to dedicate more time to her degree.

Cravens currently resides in California after recently graduating from California State University, Northridge and is heavily involved in compliance as a licensing manager alongside acting in the TV and film industry.

## External links

\* Rylee Cravens at TV.com