KELLY MCGILLIS
BIOGRAPHY
Kelly McGillis secured her place in our collective pop culture with her memorable performances in three of the most popular and acclaimed films of the 80’s, taking Tom Cruise’s breath away (to paraphrase the Oscar Winning song) in Top Gun, earning a Golden Globe nomination opposite Harrison Ford as an Amish mother of a young murder witness and playing lawyer to Oscar winner Jodie Foster’s rape victim character in The Accused.
And yet, even as she topped every director’s A-list for a time, McGillis opted to grow as an actress rather than get caught up in the fame trip. “The funny part of my success is that, I never strove to be famous,” she says. “The pressure of being a movie star, of being judged by people who began to see me in a way I never saw myself, was hard to deal with. Fame is never about the creative process, and to me, that process is why I became an actress in the first place.”
Kelly McGillis fans wondering whatever became of their idol can finally call off the dogs—the actress is alive and well, living in Washington, DC and Key West, Florida with her husband and two beautiful daughters, and, just coincidentally, has been busier than ever with her career.
These days, though, having taken a several year hiatus from major film work to have and raise Kelsey (age 7) and Sonora (age 4), performing on stage with the Washington Shakespeare Theater and as a featured member of independent film ensembles, she’s happy to be a creatively challenged working actress, rather than a movie star.
Having recently concluded her run as ‘Lavinia’ in the Eugene O’Neill play Mourning Becomes Electra, she is currently looking forward to the release of the feature film Painted Angels, an Old West ensemble drama set in the 1870’s, co-starring Brenda Fricker, in which McGillis plays a self-supporting hard luck prostitute. The actress is also preparing to shoot the HBO movie Perfect Lady (in which she plays a forensic pathologist) and an upcoming mini-series for ABC entitled Third Twin.
McGillis’ career has always been marked by strong, proud and offbeat characters, and her role in Painted Angels is no exception. “The prostitutes in this film are women without choices, and the part of Nettie appealed to me because she maintains her dignity despite having to turn to prostitution to support herself and her son,” she says. “Her husband is out of the picture, and in a society where few women had trade skills to offer the community and most were not even allowed to teach school to survive, she manages to hold her own and be independent.
“The experience of making the movie was wonderful,” she adds. “A six piece ensemble without any real star trips is, to me, the ideal working environment.”
McGillis’ attraction to the strong maternal instincts of Nettie is a perfect reflection of the career sacrifices she’s made in recent years to focus her attention on her family, husband Fred Tillman and her two daughters. Though she took the occasional spot in several TV movies (including Mary Higgins Clark’s Remember Me in 1995) and performed on stage these past five years, McGillis settled into what she considers her most important role—Mom to Kelsey and Sonora, who are growing up far from the Hollywood scene. These days, aside from the occasional visit to the set of McGillis’ latest project (“an education in itself,” she says), and watching their mother perform in her latest play, the girls are given a well-grounded, warm sense of home.
“Having children has given me a whole new sense of self,” she says. “Acting will always be a part of my life that is important to me, but I also felt a need to create an identity apart from that. Being a mother is all part of the journey of my life.”
She continues: “Just as I was never an actress who fit into any particular mold, I keep changing and growing as a person. The greatest thing about taking time off is the great sense of worth I felt realizing that I have value apart from my career. A lot of women reach a certain age and run off to the plastic surgeon to erase years of their life, but I am proud of where I’ve been and how I’ve learned from my mistakes. Being married and having children, living a much more anonymous life out of the spotlight, has been a tremendous blessing.”
More often than not during her domestic down time, McGillis could also be found working at the Caribbean themed establishment she and Tillman opened in Key West. Kelly’s Restaurant Bar Grill and Brewery, which she describes as a funky little (350 capacity) mom and pop operation, is “as far from a Planet Hollywood type atmosphere as you can get.” Most patrons are still shocked to see the well known owner waiting tables or manning the cashier, and the majority can’t resist asking her “Where’s Tom? I just tell them, uh, probably with his wife Nicole, where he should be. The power of pop culture!”
McGillis feels that now is the appropriate time to begin acting full time again for both creative and financial reasons. She still gets excited about the challenge and creativity of new roles, but, with college for the girls just ten years away (best to start the fund now), she is also aware that she must contribute what she’s able to the household fund. “Few families these days can afford to have a parent stay at home full time, and we are no exception to that,” she says. “The reality is that women are saddled with societal guilt when they forestall having kids to build careers, yet they must generate income and sacrifice quality time in order to support the children when they eventually have them!”
Even as she gets back in the swing of things, McGillis’ goals as an actress are very simple: “All I’m asking is to make a decent living doing something I love. I don’t need all the fancy things in life to be happy. It’s never been about making money for me. That’s why I am careful with the decisions I make about my career, and why I play such a diversity of characters against type. I’m more into making movies for the emotional fulfillment I get than anything else.”
Her restless creative nature, however, is leading her in the direction of an eventual career behind the cameras. She is constantly learning from the top names she has worked with about the craft of directing, and has helmed some plays for the theatre, but is practical about her pursuit of major motion picture making. “I will approach directing the same way I always did acting, going back to school and learning from the ground up,” she says. “I want to have as much ammunition as possible and know every nuance of lighting, editing, set design…everything it takes to get the right performance and image before I really get started.”
Conscious attention to nuance and detail, along with that sort of dedication, is what led McGillis to the top ranks of her chosen art form in the Eighties. Born in Newport Beach, CA, she earned extra credit in high school as a narrator for a theatre ensemble, and quickly realized where her future lay. She dropped out of school, enrolled in an acting conservatory, and eventually was accepted at Julliard, where her classical training and such activities as Shakespeare in the Park helped foster a love for theatre which continues to this day.
Her big break was 1982’s Reuben Reuben with Tom Conti, which led to the 1984 TV movie Sweet Revenge and, not long after, stardom in the two consecutive mega hits, Witness and Top Gun. “I took the role in Witness because I never played a character this innocent before,” she says. “As for Top Gun, I thought of it as a hip MTV kind of thing. I never realized the kind of impact these movies would have.”
There was a downside to that impact (especially the Top Gun success), though, as McGillis found herself being considered for stereotypical dumb blonde love interest roles rather than meatier parts in big budget films. Rather than compromise her creative ideals, she rebelled and often chose low budget films with more satisfying parts. In addition to her acclaimed 1988 performance in The Accused, McGillis’ other notable works include the Alan Rudolph film Made in Heaven (opposite Timothy Hutton), The House on Carroll Street and Unsettled Land (all 1987), 1989’s Winter People (with Kurt Russell), Grand Isle (1991) and The Babe, opposite John Goodman’s title character, in 1992.
McGillis stayed closer to home to further pursue her theatrical goals with the Shakespeare Theater in Washington DC, playing Helena in All’s Well That Ends Well, Rosalynn in As You Like It, and roles in Twelfth Night and Measure For Measure. “I never wanted to limit myself to any set medium,” she says. “Shakespeare is one of the most challenging things an actor can do, from the language to the story to the pattern of emotions, to familiarizing yourself with meter and rhythmic verse. Fulfilling that verse is a great achievement.”
As McGillis returns to form with her new slate of projects, the one thing she has foremost on her mind is to keep herself similarly challenged and unafraid to take risks. “I don’t think there’s anything I can’t do, once I set my mind to it,” she says confidently. “The kind of parts I play will have a lot to do with where I am in my life and what my needs are at any given time. Ideally, I can strike a balance between drama and comedy and keep a good attitude as I do it. Fame was always a frightening thing to me, but I never succumbed to its darker forces. I just kept growing and learning, and that is something that will never stop.”
CHRIS DEGNER
Biography
Chris Degner’s compelling, can’t take your eyes off him four minute demo reel on IMDB showcases his genius for playing characters steeped in deviance – that subtle, seductive evil that lurks behind the nice guy façade – and strong fisted discipline. Yet it’s his masterful, friendly and lighthearted approach to the audition process and focused, efficient work ethic which has earned him a stunning variety of roles since his breakout role on Showtime’s “Masters of Sex” in 2013. Since then, he has seared himself into the public consciousness playing impossible to forget characters on CBS’ “Criminal Minds,” “Lift Girl,” “Deadball,” “Payday” and the 2017 crime film “Secrets of Deception” (starring Tom Sizemore and Lorenzo Lamas).
Currently, he’s too busy pursuing new roles to contemplate writing a volume on effective auditioning – but the natural born storyteller has much to reveal about how he approaches the stone faces of casting directors who have seen dozens, if not hundreds of actors, before he has entered the room. Putting things in the proper perspective (“It’s acting, not open heart surgery!”), he enters super-relaxed, eager to put everyone at ease with a chill attitude, and a fun, lighthearted comment that disarms them and gives them insight into himself as a person. Before he starts, he asks, “Am I married to the script or can I make this my own?” Chris says, “I want to know their parameters, especially when I get three, four, five page auditions. I can hold the script and refer to it from time to time, but that takes me out of the character. Or I can tell them I have the verbiage and character down, and ask if they’re cool seeing a performance rather than simply watching me read. I see this as my opportunity to tell a story of me getting to play someone. The casting directors are generally appreciative of me asking.”
Another classic Chris anecdote finds him leaving the “Masters of Sex” audition, where he and others were collectively asked to simulate masturbation, which he did alternating between eyes shut and gritting his teeth. In the hallway moments later, one of the show’s executive producers thanked him for coming in and shook his hand. Chris deadpanned, “I gotta hand it to you. It takes balls to shake hands with someone who just jerked off.” Halfway home, he got a call that he was hired for the part. Other times, Chris gets the gig by simply nailing the character. During his “Criminal Minds” audition, all the main casting people were on their phones, bored, not paying much attention. His reading was so creepy and disturbing that everyone put down their phones and looked up. He got the part before he got home.
His experience on the “Criminal Minds” set playing accused murderer Miles Hendrick reveals that, while Chris likes to approach characters in offbeat, unexpected way – i.e. laughing nervously when he’s scared to death - he’s also excellent at taking direction, nailing things quickly and keeping the flow of the scene going. “They set aside a whole day for me to play the scene, and we wrapped by 1 p.m.,” he says. “That makes a big difference. If you save them six hours of time, you save them hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Chris first got the acting bug in the late 90s, when a friend told him he was making extra money working as a background artist in large film productions. Joining his pal, Chris’ first onscreen appearance was in David Fincher’s “Fight Club” (starring Brad Pitt), where he upped his camera time by being attentive to the director’s needs between takes. During a certain scene, one of the fighters needed two guys to hold his feet while getting beaten up. Because Chris was so close to the action, he was tapped to be one of them. “Ask any actor who is successful,” he says, “and they’ll tell you they were picked because someone needed somebody to do a certain part at a certain time. Being present, knowing what’s going on at all time even if you’re just an extra or have a small part, is key.”
After a second prominent background appearance, in Clint Eastwood’s “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” Chris got the bug and started years of acting classes, passionately pursuing his craft as he made his living as a liquor and wine broker and salesperson. Starting in the years before “Masters of Sex” and also since then, Degner has honed his skills, expanded his range and built an impressive resume starring in nearly 20 short films – including two, “Down the Scale” and “White Wedding,” (both 2015) that he wrote and produced himself. He has also hightailed it to the USC campus countless times to appear in student films.
“I never understood why actors looked down upon doing student films,” Chris says. “I starred in a ton of them and loved every role I played. I got a ton of dialogue and the process was the same as in a larger production. Why spend more money on scene study classes when you can get paid a little for a student film, have extensive roles, and then have work you can use not only for a reel, but to analyze, pick apart and help you grow as an actor?”
Becoming a working actor in middle age gives Chris the advantage of a wide range of experiences to draw from that younger upstarts haven’t lived long and hard enough to have. A native of Arcadia, California and graduate of San Diego State, his unique resume included working as a ski instructor at Club Med in the 80s before he worked for 20 years as a bartender. Ever the smartass kid in class who could command the attention of a room, he found the perfect way to connect with people that paved the way for his future career in front of the cameras. “When I was a bartender,” Chris says, “I felt that I made my money through entertainment. I got money/tips from people by being interesting to listen to. It’s really no different than being an actor. No matter the medium, I love being a storyteller and having people say, ‘You know, there’s something interesting about that guy, and I want to listen to what he has to say.’”
Beyond the sets of films and TV shows, Chris has been making a difference in the world these past three years devoting hours each week to cat rescue and adoption. Driven by a desire to find homes for neglected cats, and his “all or nothing” passionate personality, he helps out for up to five hours at a time at Petsmart on Tuesdays and Petco on Thursdays. He also spends much of his free time transporting them and assisting in emergency situations, making sure the cats can find good, supportive homes before they have to be euthanized. Chris recently placed two stray cats that were hanging around his backyard, and began fostering one of his own. He was a dog person most of his life – but when he and his wife got a few cats a few years ago, he learned about a desperate need that he felt compelled to respond to. “More than anything else I do, including my work as an actor and continuing to pursue this career,” he says, “this is the most important thing – to give these beautiful creatures who are at our mercy a chance to stay alive and have a quality life.”
As a performer, Chris sees himself following in the footsteps of other character actors – like Steve Buscemi, Casey Affleck, Aaron Paul and Michael Shannon – who work in smaller productions on their way to more high-profile roles. “The coolest thing about acting is that someone can be a valet one day and two years later be up there winning and Academy Award,” he says. “Some things are meant to be and some are not, and the universe has a way of finding its way for people to go. My goal is to be doing the right thing at the right moment and time – oh, and have the opportunity to play a Bond villain before I die!”
CARLOS AND ALEXA PENAVEGA
Biography
Not long after their wedding in 2014, veteran performers Carlos Pena and Alexa Vega - who uniquely took the liberty of legally combining their last names as PenaVega on their marriage certificate – wondered how cool it would be to write a book about their individual and collective life experiences as a young married couple in Hollywood who found each other through Christ.
A veteran actor and voice actor, “Los” was a member of the hugely successful recording and touring vocal group Big Time Rush, formed for the hit Nickelodeon series of the same name and largely credited for bringing the boy band concept back. A working actress since age 5, “Lex” became famous as Carmen Cortez in the mega-popular Spy Kids film series. She performed on Broadway in “Hairspray” and played Ruby Gallagher on ABC Family’s “Ruby & The Rockits.”
“We have so much amazing material to work with, and there’s got to be a story there,” Los recalls saying at the time. “So I created a one sheet proposal with the title ‘What’s The Point?’ We sent it to our agents and nothing happened. We were disappointed at the time, but our faith is the foundation of everything. So we decided to let God guide the process.”
The couple’s incredible, divinely orchestrated life over the past decade makes now the perfect time to share their deeply personal story and testimony about God’s love and grace in their lives. Building off the concept of Los’ original title, What If Love Is The Point?, their new book from HarperCollins, is artfully structured with alternating chapters, building the story via first person narratives by Lex and Los. It is written by the PenaVegas with Margot Starbuck, a New York Times bestselling writer and an award winning author of over 20 books who specializes in Christian works.
Now married for over eight years, the PenaVegas have two sons (Ocean and Kingston) and a daughter (Rio), all under five years old, and split their time at home between a place in Maui and a 60’x30’ catamaran in Florida. In addition to facing and overcoming many more financial, emotional, spiritual and marital challenges, the two have countless more TV and film appearances under their belt - including an influential season on “Dancing with the Stars,” where they made history as the only married couple ever to compete against each other.
Those appearances in Season 21, which are powerfully chronicled in Chapter 8 as told by Lex, broke Lex and Los open to a whole new national audience and gave them weekly opportunities to witness about their faith and to speak positively about their Christ-centered relationship Their segments talking about marriage as a sacred commitment people should still believe in (even while negotiating the ups and downs of show business) led thousands of people of all ages to write in, thanking them for taking a bold stance and even, in some cases, helping reignite the marriages of some viewers. With all that buzz around them, Lex and Los had some offers to do a reality show, but they wanted to steer clear of that world because they still felt a heartfelt inspirational book would be the ideal way to chronicle their amazing lives.
A few years later, after moving to Maui, the two were talking with their friends, bestselling Christian authors Jeff and Alyssa Bethke, who were inspired by their story and asked Lex and Los if they had ever wanted to write a book. Carlos told him about the one sheet he wrote up years earlier and they agreed to send it to their publisher, Jenny Baumgartner, editorial director and acquisitions editor for Nelson Books, a division of HarperCollins Christian publishing. Around the same time, Baumgartner’s interest was piqued after seeing an Instagram post by Lex detailing her years battling a debilitating eating disorder and how faith brought her through. The pieces that led to the publication of What If Love Is The Point? slowly fell into place.
“Carlos and I felt eager years ago to write about our lives and how God has worked with and helped us to grow through many difficult circumstances,” says Lex. “But rather than force the issue when people weren’t showing interest, we just let it go and believed that it would happen when the time was right. As with everything we do, our thought was, if God’s not in it, we don’t want it. And now, in His perfect timing, we have so many new stories to tell and testimonies to offer. Honestly, what could we have shared in a single year of marriage versus nine? We’re still growing and learning every day. God wanted to season us more before we shared our stories. He brought us through a lot and we have come out stronger and better for it – all the more equipped to bring Him more glory.”
Allowing themselves to be open, honest and vulnerable so that others who face similar challenges in their lives can feel less alone and like someone has their back, What If Love Is the Point? is the couple’s plain spoken shared testimony about the true joy they’ve come to experience in Christ and the insights that have changed their lives. They freely admit that as 30something human beings, working performers, husband and wife and now parents of young children, life is not easy – and committing to their Christian walk is often difficult and stressful despite the love and beauty of God at the center. Often they don’t see God at work in the moment but in retrospect can see how He was working with them in their struggles.
At its core, the book is about performers who seem to have it all – fame, fortune, opportunities, love and admiration – but feel empty, discouraged, fearful and out of control until they encounter and embrace the true Source of it all. Along the way, Lex and Los discuss the charming, offbeat details of their unexpected courtship after meeting through their mutual friend Andrew, whose sense of inner peace and example ultimately led Carlos to a relationship with Christ. Yet the narrative also includes difficult passages about Lex’s years long battle with bulimia and Carlos’ journey (with her help) from an immature, self-centered understanding of God and an attachment to materialism to a true, meaningful relationship based on (like Lex) humbling himself and asking Jesus for help, trusting God in all things he cannot personally control. They also talk frankly about the challenges in keeping their family together in an industry where work often demands that one spouse or the other is gone on set or on tour for months at a time. They have “two weeks max” apart from each other rule and while some think it’s crazy, they travel everywhere together with their kids.
Lex and Los show how 1) putting God at the center of their lives has helped them in their marriage, their parenting and even their career choices; 2) giving to others, rather than focusing on themselves, has brought true fulfillment; and 3) surrendering themselves to Christ helped them find each other – and in the process of growing in Him and in their love for each other, discovering who they really are.” In the final chapter titled “What If Love…?,” the two – having told their story so purposefully and eloquently – create a point by point breakdown on just how all of this manifests in their day to day life, starting each section with “Because Love is the Point.” The final words of their introduction to this section almost reads like a prayer: “Being loved by God is the point. Loving God with our lives is the point. Loving the people He puts in our path is the point. Sharing God’s love with others is the point. Love is the point. The reason our lives look the way they do today is because of God’s love.”
Because love is the point, they write, we’re both committed to growing spiritually. . .we are both committed to growing emotionally. . .we’re listening together for God’s guidance. . .in our marriage we’re making each other better. . .we’re working to keep our marriage healthy and strong. . .we’re choosing the rest God offers. . .we aim to live with integrity. . .we purpose to live with consistency. . .we are serving others. . .we are careful with our words. . .we invest in relationships. . .we’re working at healing relationships that are broken. . .we’re sharing our faith with others. . .”
Drawing on one of the chapter subheads, Carlos says, “The only way to be impactful in this world for Christ is to be consistent. We’re not always going to be perfect but we will always strive to live in a manner worthy of His love. Lex adds: “Choosing to be consistent is what takes the fear out of our life. We no longer worry about what people think about us on social media. If we mess up, we own up to it and apologize for it. We don’t just show perfect moments. We talk about messing up and how we can be better people and parents. Writing this book was a wonderful and cathartic way to reflect on how God has always worked in every situation in our lives. It was a cool, awesome and healing way to talk about the many things that have gone on in our lives up till now.”
LAUREN S. GORDON
Biography
Lauren S. Gordon’s burgeoning career as an actor over the past few years is not only proof positive that with a lot of hard work and a bit of serendipity, dreams can indeed come true – but also that it’s never too late to push those long set aside aspirations in motion.
For the Philadelphia bred and based Lauren, all it took was the right sign. In 2017, she spotted a notice on Casting Networks calling for extras on Barry Levinson’s HBO film “Paterno,” starring Al Pacino. While on the set at Citi Field as one of 300 background actors during a game scene, photos were taken of the extras five at a time for an undisclosed purpose. The Oscar winning director chose her and only three others for an upgraded speaking role. Lauren played a wealthy Nittany Club donor’s wife who shook hands with the actor portraying disgraced Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky.
The single line in that movie – incredibly, her first time on a set, other than for commercials - made her eligible for SAG membership, and she’s been on an amazing trajectory since then, playing a wide range of roles which showcase her powerful presence and diversity as a performer. During the shoot, she met a fellow Philly actor who recommended she contact and study under the guidance of master on-camera acting coach John Pallotta in NYC and Philadelphia. While studying under him, she was introduced to top New York casting director Donna McKenna.
These contacts have helped Lauren score roles as a CIA special agent (“The Report”) and nurse (“5th Borough”), and led to parts on the hit Showtime show “Ray Donovan” and two short films (“Killing Spree” and “Titillated.” In 2019, she played the wife and mother (deceased in the present) of main characters in the film “Bad Education,” starring Hugh Jackman and Emmy and Oscar winning actress Allison Janney.
Through McKenna, she connected with former NYPD officer and celebrity bodyguard turned actor-writer-director Steve Stanulis, who cast her as a casting director in his soon to be released indie film “The Hinsdale House.” He was so impressed with her performance that he gave her an extra scene – and told her she was so natural that he thought she had been acting for years. Stanulis also cast Lauren as the mom of the title character in his 2020 film“Chronicle of a Serial Killer.”
Lauren’s director-selected television work has also greatly expanded, with prominent appearances both before and since the pandemic lockdown. These include playing a featured bartender (with lines) on Showtime’s Kevin Bacon-starrer “City on a Hill”; the main character’s wife on HBO’s “The Gilded Age,” an 1880s New York period drama created by Julian Fellowes of “Downton Abbey” fame; the wife of a Greek shipping tycoon on the Fox crime drama “Prodigal Son”; a member of the Royal Family on The CW’s Lucy Hale starring crime drama “Katy Keene”; the friend of a principal actor on CBS’ Tom Selleck-starrer “Blue Bloods”; and the wife of the principal actor on STARZ’ “High Town.” Lauren has also done stand-in work on Showtime’s “Billions” and Apple TV’s “Servant,” executive produced by M. Night Shyamalan.
All of these breakthroughs would have been unimaginable to Lauren earlier in her adult life, when she abandoned her creative instincts and chose academia. After getting her B.A. in communications at the University of Pittsburgh, she followed in the tradition of her attorney father and sister and earned her law degree (at the top of her class) from Widener (now Delaware) Law School. Passing the bar exam on the first try in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, she went on to become a successful attorney in Philadelphia, working for several firms and handling catastrophic medical malpractice and domestic relations cases.
Lauren continued practicing for a time after she married her husband Len Cohen, an established attorney she met while still in law school. When she started having children, she ultimately felt that being a mom was her top priority and she gave up her law practice to raise Alec (now 24, first year grad student at university of Arizona), her daughter Davi (21, a senior at the University of Maryland) and Eli (16, a junior in high school).
“I liked the fact that I was able to accomplish important things like helping remove children from abusive homes and to more loving, nurturing environments,” Lauren says, “but ultimately, I realized that at heart, I was not a suit and office person. I really loved being a stay-at home mom for all the years that made practical sense. Pursuing acting was always in the back of my mind but there was no time to devote to that for many years, especially when the kids were little.”
A lifelong lover of the arts, Lauren spent a lot of time in New York, taking in all the creative energy and frequenting the 13th Street Rep theatre every chance she had. To find spiritual balance in her life, as her children got older, she also became a certified Bikram and Baron Baptiste Power Yoga instructor, and went on to teach yoga for several years on the main line of Philadelphia, the area where she lives. She now also incorporates pilates into her exercise regimen.
With more and more free time on her hands, she gave acting an initial go, signing with the Philadelphia based agency MMA and booking local and regional commercials for everything from car dealerships to beauty creams. This motivated her to sign up with Casting Networks, which booked her on “Paterno” and set her current life path in motion. Prior to the breakthrough “Paterno” experience, when she was non-union, Lauren appeared on several Discovery ID shows, including “Evil Lives Here” and “Dead North,” the latter in a featured role as the lead detective that solves the case presented.
“I feel stimulated and excited every time I walk onto a set and have had the opportunity to meet more amazing people over the last four years than I had met in the previous 20,” Lauren says. “Acting comes very naturally to me and I can morph pretty easily into what the casting agents and directors want me to be. It’s exciting having the opportunity to be a completely different person every day and create a fresh persona to bring another person’s reality to life onscreen. I don’t know how it happens, I just draw from all of my life experiences and just form into that person.”
Aside from her family and her daily yoga practice which keeps her centered and present in every moment, Lauren’s other great passion is dogs – two rescues (a three and a half year old German Shepherd mix named Wentz, named after the former Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterback Carson Wentz and a husky/lab mix named Skye) and her new French bulldog Finn.
“I love my life as an actor,” Lauren says, “and can’t wait to see what the future holds. My advice to anyone thinking of taking this leap of faith is to think tenacity. Keep at it. Don’t give up and get yourself out there. Even if it’s just background, you never know when your Barry Levinson is coming along. Get your name out there. Have a thick skin. Give it your all, and while you should take your craft seriously, you should also have fun. Be optimistic. Go to classes. Be persistent. You just may find yourself in the right place at the right time and you never know who will see you and give you your next opportunity.”
ISSAC RYAN BROWN
Biography
Over the course of his extraordinary multi-faceted career, Issac Ryan Brown has mastered the art of voiceover as Gus Porter on the Disney Channel’s “Owl House” and Goby on Nickelodeon’s “Bubble Guppies” and held his own showcasing his natural wit, charm and charisma alongside Anthony Anderson as Young Dre over five seasons of “Blackish.” Yet to the millions of fans who’ve watched him grow up on Disney Channel’s “Raven’s Home” since 2017, the multi-talented performer is beloved as the tall-tale telling, troublemaking but kind hearted Booker Baxter-Carter, who is both blessed and cursed with psychic powers, just like his mom, played by series star and Executive Producer Raven-Simone.
In real life, Issac may not have Booker’s unique abilities, but he looks forward to a dynamic, diverse and impactful future as an artist far beyond his renown as a popular young TV star – a journey which began at age six when he wowed Howard Stern, Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel (who called him a “superstar”) auditioning for “America’s Got Talent” with a spirited song and dance of “I Want You Back,” channeling Issac’s idol Michael Jackson.
Before he became a sitcom star, Issac did some solid dramatic acting, with roles on several acclaimed dramas “How To Get Away With Murder,” “Devious Maids” and “NCIS: Los Angeles.” Though gifted at comedy and always open to opportunities in that arena, he can see himself delving more into the dramatic side of his artistry as well. As an actor, one of his idols was the late Chadwick Boseman, and he can envision a career like his, playing straight dramatic roles and a superhero like Black Panther.
“Though I’m required from time to time to do red carpets, for me, working as an actor in L.A. is not about showing off and going to parties,” says Issac. “It’s more about doing what I love to do and continuing to evolve as an artist and be the best I can be at everything I try. The question I ask myself is never, ‘Can I do this?’ but how much work I have to do to get better at it.”
While his ongoing acting success is assured, Issac also has his sights set on a parallel career as an R&B/pop singer/songwriter in the vein of his chief influences MJ, Usher and Chris Brown. During the pandemic lockdown, with “Raven’s Home” on indefinite hiatus, he got together with some pals from his native Detroit, headed down to Atlanta and recorded a few songs and shot some videos. In recent months, he’s been spending his time on weekends in the studio working on his upcoming eight song debut EP with beatmaker Hollywood and engineer and vocal producer C Minor. His songs include “Inch Away,” “What I’m On,” “Feel Like,” “You Do,” “Easy” and “On Me.”
“The EP captures my musical spirit of doing a little bit of everything, and is a reminder to people that I love to sing,” Issac says. “In the past, I did some recording as part of Disney voices, but when I hit puberty my voice started to change and I focused on rapping because I couldn’t sing the way I wanted to. So it’s great to have the opportunity to express all the things I love to do musically. The songs reflect my growth and how far I’ve come as an artist, with most of the lyrics based on personal experiences I’ve been through. I’m excited to share this part of me and make music an equally important part of my future in entertainment.”
Believing strongly in giving back, Issac has a passion for charitable cause and inspiring young people to overcome obstacles and pursue their dreams just as he has done. Concerned that many inner city kids growing up in his area of Detroit aren’t learning to read, he and his mom started a foundation called the I Can Literacy Foundation, whose mission is to encourage young people to set and achieve goals based on “I Can ____” sentences, like “I can read,” “I can run,” “I can fly,” or anything they set their minds to. In 2020, the Browns started a backpack drive in Detroit, where they would fill backpacks full of books targeted to children – including novels, illustrated storybooks and Dr. Seuss classics. This year, they partnered with a local school to conduct the drive and giveaways on a larger scale.
In between work commitments, Issac often either performs or speaks at schools in Detroit and L.A., giving away backpacks, signing autographs and encouraging kids to believe anything is possible for their lives as long as they commit and work hard. “I let them know that, like me, you don’t know what you can achieve until you do it,” he says. “I came up in the same situation as they are, but always felt like I had the capacity to do bigger things in my life. I tell them wherever you live, wherever you are in life, great things are possible – and I’m living proof of that.”
As important as all the Hollywood success may seem, it would feel hollow for Issac if it wasn’t grounded in the love and support of his family. His mother, who owns a daycare center in Detroit, wanted him to play football – but when he was too young to join up, he played little league baseball, where he promptly started moonwalking like MJ on the field. When he began dancing during karate class, his parents wisely shifted his focus from sports to performing arts, enrolling him in piano, vocal and drum lessons at the now defunct Jerry Luck Studios in the Detroit suburb of Eastpointe. From ages 6-9, while traveling back and forth to auditions and acting jobs in Los Angeles, Issac drummed, danced and performed monologues for the African, Drum, Dance and Drama Troupe (ALNUR), a Detroit based youth performing arts company. The ensemble played shows at the local African History Museum and many events connected to Kwanzaa celebrations.
The quarantine time offered some unique silver linings that allowed the normally constantly busy Issac an opportunity to spend time with his family and be part of his community back home in Michigan in some unique ways. In addition to spending time with his sisters several cousins who moved in, he got to spend some rare quality time with his dad, who is usually as busy with work as he is. The two enjoyed grilling in the yard and building things, including a stool. Issac also had a blast working at a local car wash (“a real job!”), where nobody recognized him and he enjoyed the hands on experience of getting cash tips.
“There’s a great story from my early childhood that reveals everything you need to know about my family’s heart and generosity,” Issac says. “One Christmas season, my mom wanted me to give away toys that I didn’t play with anymore. She said she would buy me new toys to replace them. When I told her I wanted to hang on to the old ones, she took me to Toys R Us, where we picked up a bunch of all new toys and she said we were going to give them away to kids who didn’t have toys. This taught me an incredible lesson. Most people just want to donate old things they no longer need, but my mom had the foresight to think differently about giving. To this day, my family doesn’t celebrate Christmas traditionally. We’re always out feeding the homeless and finding other ways to contribute to our community.”
