For a Queens actress, home is on the screen

   “It always felt like there was an artist who needed to get out,” LoGiudice said.

   That artist has emerged.

   “When Harry Tries to Marry,” an independent film in which LoGiudice plays a pregnant model trying to make her relationship with her boyfriend work, hit theaters in Manhattan and Kew Gardens this month.

   The movie, about an Indian-American who asks his uncle in India to help him find an arranged marriage, is one of a number of roles the Howard Beach native has landed since she decided to throw herself into acting full time after originally pursuing a career in public health. In fact, she had been granted a fellowship to study public health in India in 2006 after graduating from Wesleyan University, and it was there, surrounded by Bollywood, that she decided to make the plunge and follow her dreams.

   “Coming from Queens, you’re not taught that being an artist is a possibility,” said LoGiudice, who now lives in Brooklyn. “It was never presented as though this can be your vocation, just it can be your hobby. But then I was in Bombay, surrounded by the industry, and I knew I had to do it.”

   With the support of her family, LoGiudice quickly adapted to the entertainment world.

   She wrote a one-woman theater piece, “Queens Girl,” which drew on her own experiences growing up in the borough and which she performed around the country and world, including in Stockholm and Italy.

   She also performed in “Flick’s Chicks,” a 2009 movie in which she played a guarded woman looking for love. On stage, she played a Germany philosopher in “On the Border.”

   Life now is a far cry from her early days in Howard Beach, though she said she is constantly reminded of the work that goes into remaking yourself after childhood. Since going into acting, LoGiudice has spent many hours trying to eliminate her Queens accent.

   “I had to work really seriously to get rid of it,” she said. “And it’s not just the accent, it has a lot to do with how you feel about yourself and if you can separate yourself from where you came from.”

   And while it was not always easy growing up in her neighborhood, she realizes that her experiences have given her the ammunition she needs for acting.

   “It was hard, but I’m so grateful I grew up there and had the experiences I had because, as an actor, I have so much more to draw on,” she said.

   As for the future, she hopes to continue to act around the world.

   “But I’m a New Yorker at heart,” she added. “I travel a lot, but it’s so nice to come home. I’ll always come home.”