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Blue Sky Jo

2024

With the help of a gruff old neighbor, a little girl from Limoilou, blessed with a fertile imagination, sets out to make her father happier.

John Donkin

Producer · Known for Ice Age: Continental Drift, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

John Donkin received an Academy Award nomination in 2003 as producer of Gone Nutty, an animated short created at Blue Sky Studios featuring the popular character Scrat from the “Ice Age” films. Donkin joined Blue Sky Studios in 1998 as a technical and administrative director. One of his first projects was helping to complete the Oscar-winning short film Bunny. He developed the production line for Blue Sky's first feature-length animated film project, Ice Age, before becoming an associate producer on the film. Donkin went on to produce several other Blue Sky Studios projects, including Rio and Rio 2, which became a globally successful franchise, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, which grossed over $887 million worldwide, Ice Age: Continental Drift, Robots, and the Oscar-nominated short Blue Sky No Time for Nuts. Donkin began his career in computer animation in 1983, where he studied with the world-renowned CGRG (Computer Graphics Research Group) at Ohio State University. He went on to become a senior animator at the pioneering computer graphics company Cranston/Csuri Productions.

John Powell

Composer · Known for Kung Fu Panda, Migration, The Bourne Identity

John Powell is an English composer best known for his film scores. He has been based in Los Angeles since 1997 and has composed the scores to over 70 feature films. He is best known for composing scores for films, including Face/Off, the Bourne film series, the Happy Feet films, United 93, X-Men: The Last Stand, Wicked and its sequel, Evolution, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, Migration, Drumline, Hancock, The Call of the Wild, Bolt, eight Blue Sky Studios films, and nine DreamWorks Animation films. His work on Happy Feet, Ferdinand, and Solo: A Star Wars Story has earned him three Grammy nominations. He was nominated for an Academy Award for How to Train Your Dragon. Powell was a member of Hans Zimmer's music studio, Remote Control Productions, and has collaborated frequently with other composers from the studio, including Harry Gregson-Williams on Antz, Chicken Run, and Shrek and Zimmer himself on Chill Factor, The Road to El Dorado, and the first two Kung Fu Panda films. He has also collaborated with film directors such as Carlos Saldanha, Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders, Benjamin Renner, Chris Renaud, George Miller, John Woo, Ron Underwood, Doug Liman, Charles Stone III, Simon Otto, Jared Hess, and Paul Greengrass. Description above from the Wikipedia article John Powell (film composer), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Chris Wedge

Cast · Executive Producer · Known for Ice Age: The Meltdown, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Ice Age

John Christian Wedge (born March 20, 1957) is an American filmmaker, animator, and voice actor. He is best known for being the lead animator of the sci-fi action film Tron (1982), co-founding the now defunct animation studio Blue Sky Studios, and directing the short film Bunny (1998) and the feature films Ice Age (2002), Robots (2005) and Epic (2013). Wedge has received two Academy Awards nominations: one for Bunny, for which he won Best Animated Short; and Ice Age, nominated for Best Animated Feature. He also created and voiced the character Scrat in the Ice Age franchise (2002–2022). Description above from the Wikipedia article Chris Wedge, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Shion Wakayama

Cast · Known for A Tale of the Secret Saint, Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising-, Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation

Shion Wakayama (若山 詩音, Wakayama Shion, born February 10, 1998) is a Japanese voice actress (seiyuu) and former child actress. She was born in Chiba Prefecture and is affiliated with Himawari Theater Group. Shion joined Himawari Theater Group when she was 3 years old. She was scouted when she went to accompany her sister, who was a child actress. Since middle school she showed interest in voice acting because of her passion for video games. While in high school, she joined the art club, and in college, she was the bassist of a light music circle. Later, she became a voice actress and played her first lead role as Aoi Aoi in the anime film Her Blue Sky. Some of her major roles include Destiny/Cosette in Takt Op. Destiny and Mai Kawai in Police in a Pod.

Stanley Townsend

Cast · Known for The Uprising

Stanley Townsend (born August 1961) is an Irish actor. Townsend was born and brought up in Dublin. After attending Wesley College, Dublin, he studied mathematics and civil engineering at Trinity College. While there he joined the Dublin University Players, the college's Amateur Dramatic Society. He later co-founded co-operative theatre company Rough Magic with writer/director Declan Hughes and theatre director Lynne Parker, performing in numerous productions including The Country Wife, Nightshade, and Sexual Perversity in Chicago. He subsequently went on to perform in several productions at The Gate and The Abbey Theatres in Dublin. In London, he has worked with such directors as Sam Mendes in The Plough and the Stars, Richard Eyre in Guys and Dolls and Rufus Norris in Under the Blue Sky. Theatre appearances at the Royal Court include The Alice Trilogy directed by Ian Rickson and Shining City directed by Conor McPherson, for which he won an Irish Theatre Award and was nominated for the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor in 2004. Townsend's television work began on a number of shows for RTÉ in Dublin. Since moving to London, television appearances have included Spooks, The Commander, Hustle, Waking the Dead, and Omagh Bombing. ilm credits include Mike Newell's Into the West, Jim Sheridan's In the Name of the Father with Daniel Day-Lewis, The Van by Stephen Frears, Peter Greenaway's The Tulse Luper Suitcases, The Libertine with Johnny Depp, Paul Morrison's Wondrous Oblivion with Delroy Lindo, John Boorman's The Tiger's Tale and Michael Radford's Flawless. He currently lives in London.

Shannon Wallace

Cast · Known for Beauty in Black

Shannon Wallace is an American actor and model born and raised on Long Island, NY. As a model, he has worked for such brands as GAP, Nike, Kenneth Cole, Ralph Lauren and Guess. Having appeared in several commercials for Cohen's Fashion Optical, Bose, and MTV and in magazines such as GQ and Cosmopolitan. His acting work began with a guest starring role in the BET Digital series "Brooklyn Blue Sky" in 2017. Shannon then went on to book a lead role in the UMC film "Jacqueline and Jilly" alongside Victoria Rowell and Richard Brooks and a recurring role in the BET original series "American Soul" He is the oldest of 5 children and has 1 brother, Joshua and 3 sisters, Holley, Kiersten and Zorria.

Mike Hernandez

Mike Hernandez is a man who's had several careers throughout his life, and now he's a full-time actor. In April of 2013, an acting opportunity literally fell into Mike's lap. A local talent agent who saw him reading Tarot cards at a psychic fair thought he was photogenic, had a good look and great energy, and an interesting presence. She also thought he might have the makings of a good actor, so she invited him to join her agency. Having no prior aspirations of becoming an actor, Mike thought the opportunity was too good to pass up. So, as he had done so many times before in his life, Mike took a chance and got into acting. His career soon took off and he appeared in TV shows such as "Escaping the Prophet", "Evil in Law" and "Best in Chow: Taco Wars Seattle", and in the films "Blue Sky Coffee" and "String Theory", both of which were shot in Seattle. He has also been in industrial videos for the likes of Boeing, Microsoft, the VA Hospital, Navos and Kaiser Permanente and done commercial work for various clients. It occurred to Mike that if he was really going to pursue his acting career seriously, he'd have to move to Hollywood - or at least somewhere in Los Angeles area. He did just that in September of 2015, initially moving to Woodland Hills. Mike started out in somewhat of a good position in that he had built up credentials in Seattle and already had both theatrical and commercial representation with LA's FireStarter Entertainment. Since landing in Hollywood, he's booked two recurring parts in HBO's "Veep" and ABC's "American Crime", roles in the independent films "Almost Home" and "The Honor List", and commercials and print ads for various national companies. His Hollywood career was off and running. Mike was born in 1955 in El Paso, Texas. He spent his late teens and early twenties working at Farah Manufacturing Company and at various Pizza Hut restaurants, and as a professional musician performing in all of the city's top music venues. In 1977, he made a fateful decision to join the Navy to become a Navy Musician. The Navy sent him to Seattle, WA, where he began his stint in the Pacific Northwest as a Navy Musician assigned to Navy Band Seattle. He then spent the next 39 years there as a professional musician; a database developer and consultant; an author and technical writer; a program/community/marketing manager at Microsoft; a technical speaker and trainer known throughout the United States, Europe and South America; a professional Tarot reader; and an actor. Mike now lives with his wife in Glendale, CA, where he pursues his acting career full-time and continues to study acting and improv. He still does Tarot readings and plays his guitar (he's been a guitarist for over 45 years), and is just having a blast being an actor.

Sora Aoi

Cast · Known for Siren

Sola Aoi (蒼井そら) is a Japanese former AV idol, nude model, and film and television actress. Starring in more than 600 adult films between 2002 and 2011, Aoi is widely considered one of the most famous AV idols of the 2000s, with her popularity as an adult video actress leading to celebrity status as a media personality both in Japan and abroad. As a student, she worked at various part-time jobs in the food-service industry, such as pizza parlors, pubs and sushi bars with the intent of becoming a pre-school teacher. While in her third year in high school, Aoi was scouted in Shibuya by a talent agency for gravure modelling. She decided to enter the adult entertainment industry with the aim of eventually working on TV and in other parts of the entertainment industry, stating that "If there was only the AV industry, I couldn’t do it." When asked how her stage name was chosen, Aoi explained: "My agency asked what color I liked. I said blue. He also asked what I like in general. I said sky. So, he chose Aoi Sora." Aoi appeared as a gravure idol in the June 2002 issue of Bejean and then made her debut in adult videos at age eighteen in July 2002, with Happy Go Lucky! for the Alice Japan studio, part of the Kuki Inc. group which was one of Japan's largest producers of pornography at the time. The next month, she appeared in the AV The Blue Sky on the Samansa label for the Max-A studio, also part of the Kuki group. For her video appearances in 2002, Aoi was awarded the Second Place Award as Best New Actress in the 2002 X City Grand Prix Awards. Aoi continued making videos for both Alice Japan and Max-A for almost two-and-a-half years until late 2004. While continuing to perform in hardcore AVs, Aoi also appeared in the first video release of the Shuffle company's new label Believe. Entitled The Naked Body, this June 2003 release was an "image video", which has nude modeling but features no sex. During this period, Aoi also started making appearances in mainstream media. In May 2003, she had a role in the theatrical release Gun Crazy 4: Requiem for a Bodyguard and from July to December 2003, Aoi had a role in the TV Asahi J-dorama Tokumei Kakarichō Tadano Hitoshi. For her starring role in the pink film, Tsumugi, released to theaters in July 2004, Aoi was given a Best Actress Award at the 2004 Pink Grand Prix ceremony. The film was ranked the fourth-best pink film release of the year. Aoi also starred in the October 2004 release of the manga-based theatrical thriller Stop the Bitch Campaign: Hell Version. According to one reviewer of the June 2007 DVD release of the film: "The acting proves that Sora Aoi is no Dame Judi Dench but she is winsome enough to make you believe and care for her." In November 2004, Aoi left Alice Japan and Max-A to move to the newly formed studio, S1 No. 1 Style, part of the large Hokuto Corporation. Her first video for S1, Sell Debut, was directed by Hideto Aki and released on November 11, 2004. Aoi continued making about one video a month for S1 until mid-2006. By this time, Aoi had become one of the most popular AV idols in Japan. Her name was the second most popular internet search on a female celebrity in Japan for 2005.

Annie Ross

Annabelle McCauley Allan Short (25 July 1930 – 21 July 2020), known professionally as Annie Ross, was a British-American singer and actress, best known as a member of the jazz vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. Ross was born in Surrey, England, the daughter of Scottish vaudevillians John "Jack" Short and Mary Dalziel Short (née Allan). Her brother was Scottish entertainer and theatre producer and director Jimmy Logan. She first appeared on stage at age three. At the age of four, she travelled to New York by ship with her family; she later recalled that they "got the cheapest ticket, which was right in the bowels of the ship". Shortly after arriving in the city, she won a token contract with MGM through a children's radio contest run by Paul Whiteman. She subsequently moved with her aunt, Scottish-American singer and actress Ella Logan, to Los Angeles, and her mother, father and brother returned to Scotland. She did not see her parents again until fourteen years later. At the age of seven, she sang "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" in Our Gang Follies of 1938, and played Judy Garland's character's sister in Presenting Lily Mars (1943). Her adulthood film roles included Liza in the film Straight On till Morning (1972), Claire in Alfie Darling (1976), Diana Sharman in Funny Money (1983), Vera Webster in Superman III (1983), Mrs. Hazeltine in Throw Momma from the Train (1987), Rose Brooks in Witchery (1988), Loretta Cresswood in Pump Up the Volume (1990), Tess Trainer in Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993), and Lydia in Blue Sky (1994). She also appeared as Granny Ruth in the horror films Basket Case 2 (1990) and Basket Case 3: The Progeny (1991). She also had a bit part in Robert Altman's The Player in 1992. Ross also starred in Scottish Television's comedy-drama Charles Endell Esquire (1979). She provided the speaking voice for Britt Ekland in The Wicker Man (1973), and Ingrid Thulin's singing voice in Salon Kitty (1976). On stage, she appeared in Cranks (1955; London and New York City), The Threepenny Opera (1972), The Seven Deadly Sins (1973) at the Royal Opera House, Kennedy's Children (1975) at Arts Theatre, London, Side by Side by Sondheim, and in the Joe Papp production of The Pirates of Penzance (1982). Ross died in New York City on 21 July 2020 from emphysema and heart disease, four days before her 90th birthday. Description above from the Wikipedia article Annie Ross, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Jessica Lange

Cast · Known for Cape Fear, American Horror Story

Jessica Phyllis Lange (born April 20, 1949) is an American actress. She is the 13th actress to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, having won two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award, along with a Screen Actors Guild Award and five Golden Globe Awards. Lange made her professional film debut in Dino De Laurentiis's 1976 remake of the 1933 action-adventure classic King Kong, for which she also won her first Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year. In 1979, she starred in the acclaimed musical film All That Jazz. In 1983, she won her second Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a soap opera star in Tootsie (1982) and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the troubled actress Frances Farmer in Frances (1982). Lange received three more nominations for Country (1984), Sweet Dreams (1985) and Music Box (1989), before winning her third Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as a bipolar housewife in Blue Sky (1994). In 2010, Lange won her first Primetime Emmy Award for her portrayal of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's aunt Big Edie in HBO's Grey Gardens (2009). Between 2011 and 2014, she won her first Screen Actors Guild Award, first Critics Choice Award, fifth Golden Globe Award, three Dorian Awards and her second and third Emmy Awards for her performances in the first, second and third seasons of FX's horror anthology series American Horror Story (2011–2015, 2018). In 2016, Lange won her first Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play for her performance in the Broadway revival of Long Day's Journey into Night. She also had a supporting role in Louis C.K.'s Peabody Award-winning web series Horace and Pete. In 2017, for her portrayal of actress Joan Crawford in the miniseries Feud, Lange received her eighth Emmy, 16th Golden Globe, sixth Screen Actors Guild Award and second TCA Award nominations. In 2019, she received a tenth Emmy nomination for her performance in American Horror Story: Apocalypse. Lange is also a photographer with four published books of photography. She has been a foster parent and holds a Goodwill Ambassador position for UNICEF, specializing in HIV/AIDS in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Russia.

Carlos Saldanha

Director · Executive Producer · Known for 100 Days, Ice Age: Collision Course, Ice Age: Continental Drift

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Carlos Saldanha (born July 20, 1968) is a Brazilian director of animated films. He was the director of Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009), and the co-director of Ice Age (2002) and Robots (2005). Saldanha was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He left his hometown in 1991 to follow his artistic instinct and passion for animation. With a background in computer science and a natural artistic sensibility, he found New York City the perfect locale to merge these skills and become an animator. He attended the MFA program at New York's School of Visual Arts, where he graduated with honors in 1993, after completing two animated shorts, The Adventures of Korky, the Corkscrew (1992) and Time For Love (1993). The shorts have been screened at animation festivals around the world. At SVA, Saldanha met Chris Wedge, one of the cofounders of Blue Sky Studios, who invited him to join their growing team of artists. He also worked as animator on Wedge's short film Bunny. Description above from the Wikipedia article Carlos Saldanha, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.​

Faye McKeever

Cast · Known for Time

Faye McKeever is an English actress. Her notable works include playing Linda in Sky 1 sitcom Trollied, Marie in Massive and Claire Olssen in Little Boy Blue. McKeever first rose to prominence in 2006 playing Donna Marie in the spin-off series Hollyoaks: In The City. This was McKeever's first major television role. In 2008, she landed a role as Lou in Torn Up Tales which first aired on 2 June 2008 on BBC Three. Later on in 2008, McKeever played the role, Marie, in Massive on BBC Three again in September and October. Whilst on the set, she was acting with Carl Rice, Lorraine Cheshire and Beverly Rudd, all actors on the cast of Trollied. In 2009, she appeared on ITV's Unforgiven as Hannah Whelan. She then featured in the 6th episode of Season 3 of The Street, playing Hannah. She played Susan in the 8th episode of the 7th season of Shameless. McKeever's first appearance in 2011 came on Sky 1's Mount Pleasant as a checkout girl. Her second TV appearance came on Trollied as Linda in August 2011, which she portrayed until the show's end in 2018. In February 2017, she appeared in the two-part drama series, The Moorside based on the Kidnapping of Shannon Matthews and in April 2017 she appeared in Little Boy Blue, a show based on the murder of Rhys Jones. In 2024, she played Louise Miller, the mother of Ruby Sunday in the Doctor Who story "Empire of Death".

Leila Farzad

Cast · Known for The Marvels

Leila Effat Farzad (Arabic: ليلى عفت Persian: لیلا عفت فرزاد; born December 30, 1981) is a British actress. She is known for her role as Naomi Jones in the Sky Atlantic series I Hate Suzie (2020–2022), which earned her a British Academy Television Award nomination. Farzad was born in London to Iranian parents. She was inspired to pursue acting by National Theatre productions her aunt took her to see, however, her parents requested she get a degree from Oxbridge first. She first studied Modern Languages at Worcester College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in French and Italian Literature. She then went on to train at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, which she said "felt like home". Farzad began her career with a voice role in the third and fourth series of the Channel 5 animated children's series Peppa Pig. She made her live action television debut in an episode of the ITV police procedural Law & Order: UK and her professional stage debut as the titular role in Miriam. Gonzalez. Durantez. at Theatre503. This was followed by roles in Blue Remembered Hills at Chichester Festival Theatre, the all female Julius Caesar at the Bridge Theatre in London, Richard II at Shakespeare's Globe. She also appeared in the ITV anthology Innocent. Farzad landed her first main role was I Hate Suzie as Naomi Jones, Suzie's (Billie Piper) manager and friend. The series was released in 2020 on Sky Atlantic and HBO Max to critical acclaim, and Farzad was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress. Farzad reprised her role in I Hate Suzie's second installment titled I Hate Suzie Too in 2022. Also that year, Farzad joined the cast of Avenue 5 for its second season and appeared alongside Josh Hartnett in The Fear Index, also on Sky. In 2023, she starred in the BBC crime drama Better.

Gwyneth Horder-Payton

Director · Known for Sons of Anarchy

Gwyneth Horder-Payton (born December 10, 1962) is an American television director. Beginning in the late 1980s, she worked as an assistant director on many films, including Pacific Heights, The Doors, Raising Cain, I Love Trouble, Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco, and others. She made her television directorial debut on the FX series The Shield, on which she was working as a first AD. Some of her subsequent television directing credits include The Riches, Bionic Woman, My Own Worst Enemy, Fringe, Battlestar Galactica, Criminal Minds, The Unit, Cold Case, Numb3rs, Blue Bloods, Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead, The Killing, NYC 22, Once Upon a Time, Hawaii Five-0, American Horror Story, Feud: Bette and Joan, 9-1-1, The Politician, 9-1-1: Lone Star and Big Sky. Horder-Payton is the granddaughter of actor Victor McLaglen (The Informer) and the niece of director Andrew V. McLaglen (Shenandoah). Description above from the Wikipedia article Gwyneth Horder-Payton, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

W. Earl Brown

Cast · Known for Scream, Hacks

William Earl Brown (born September 7, 1963) is an American actor, screenwriter, producer, musician, and songwriter. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Kenny in the film Scream (1996), Warren in the film There's Something About Mary (1998), Dan Dority on the HBO series Deadwood (2004–2006), and the voice and motion capture of Bill in the video game The Last of Us (2013). He has appeared in films such as Backdraft, The Master, Being John Malkovich, The Sessions, Vanilla Sky, The Lone Ranger, and Bloodworth (which he also wrote and produced), as well as series such as Seinfeld, NYPD Blue, C.S.I., C.S.I. Miami, The X-Files, Six Feet Under, Preacher, Bates Motel, True Detective, American Horror Story, Chicago Fire, and The Mandalorian.

David Ilku

David Ilku first appeared in various performances in New York City night clubs. Sharing the stage with the likes of The Beastie Boys and Madonna, he soon got noticed. He has worked in theater projects with the New York Theater Workshop, Drama Dept., and the Culture Project, among others. His film credits include Full Grown Men (2006) (which he co-produced), Risk (1988), Blue Steel (1990), Godass (2000), Night Journey (1996) and Liquid Sky (1982). Ilku writes and performs his highly acclaimed brand of comedy around the country and the world and is one-third of the comedy trio Unitard and one-half of the comedy duo The Duelling Bankheads. He is also writing and recording music and was an Island Records recording artist in the band, World at a Glance.

David Quantick

Writer · Known for Spider Island

David Quantick (born 14 May 1961) is an English novelist, comedy writer and critic, who has worked as a journalist and screenwriter. A former freelance writer for the music magazine NME, his writing credits have included On the Hour, Blue Jam and TV Burp. He won an Emmy Award for Veep in 2015. Quantick was born in Wortley, West Riding of Yorkshire (now South Yorkshire) on 14 May 1961, adopted, and moved at an early age with his family to Plymouth. Quantick spent the 1970s in Exmouth. Quantick went to Woodford Junior School and Plymouth College, then Exmouth Comprehensive School. He was born in 1961, in a mother-and-baby home in Wortley, Yorkshire. His mother lived in the Midlands and went to stay with an aunt In Derbyshire to conceal the fact she was pregnant. He was adopted by a family, who were living in Sheffield at the time and then moved to Plymouth. Quantick studied for a Law degree at University College London and "discovered I had no aptitude. They had these 'moot courts' - simulated a court hearings - and all I remember is dressing up in a cape like Batman." and took a Civil Service exam "to please my parents" and nearly failed" - "which was a shock". "The school I went to has a mentor system. I was asked to go back and give a talk on 'having a dream'. I told them I believe strongly that you should not have a dream." - David Quantick Quantick began writing for the music publication NME in 1983, where with Steven Wells he concentrated on comedy writing until 1995. Alongside this, he also contributed material to British comedy shows such as Spitting Image. In 1992, he joined the writing team for the Radio 4 spoof news programme On the Hour, before writing for the television follow-up The Day Today in 1994. He appeared regularly on Collins and Maconie's Hit Parade (Radio 1, 1994–1997), with his Quantick's World slot and on the weekly show, The Treatment on BBC Radio Five Live, which was an hour-long satirical news round-up. In 1995, Quantick presented a pilot show called Now What? to Carlton Television but he series was not picked up for development. He wrote with Chris Morris for Brass Eye in 1996 (broadcast in 1997) and Blue Jam (Radio 1, 1997), as well as the subsequent television version Jam (Channel 4, 2000). He also provided material for Smack the Pony (Channel 4, 1999–2001), Harry Enfield's Brand Spanking New Show (Sky One, 2000), So Graham Norton (Channel 4, 1998) and featured on Radio 4's The 99p Challenge.

Walter Sande

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Walter Sande (July 9, 1906 - November 22, 1971) was an American actor, notable for film roles including Paul Revere in Walt Disney's Johnny Tremain. Born in Denver, Colorado, he was one of those stern, heavyset character actors in Hollywood no person could recognize by name. He showed an early interest in music as a youth and by his college years managed to start his own band. This led to a job as musical director for 20th Century-Fox's theater chain, which, in turn, led him to acting in films beginning in 1937. Usually providing atmospheric bits with no billing, he made an initial impression in serial cliffhangers as a third-string heavy with the popular The Green Hornet Strikes Again! and Sky Raiders. His first top featured role, however, would come with The Iron Claw as Jack "Flash" Strong, a photographer who, uncharacteristically for Walter, served as a comic sidekick to our serial hero. Best of all would be his role in another serial as Red Pennington, the amusing sidekick to Don Winslow of the Navy. He repeated his role again in Don Winslow of the Coast Guard, the successful sequel. The Pennington role would spark a long and steady career in movies, usually a step or two behind Hollywood's elite, in To Have and Have Not (prominently featured as the fisherman who tries to cheat Bogie), in Along Came Jones, The Blue Dahlia, Dark City and Bad Day at Black Rock, among hundreds of others. A regular authoritative presence in these classic sci-fi films Red Planet Mars, The War of the Worlds and Invaders from Mars. He also had a recurring featured part in the 1940s Boston Blackie film series playing Detective Matthews alongside 'Chester Morris former thief-turned-crime hero. A primary support player during the 'golden age' of TV, Walter worked on nearly every popular western and crime show available throughout the 1950s and 1960s. He had a regular series role on "The Adventures of Tugboat Annie" as Captain Horatio Bullwinkle, Annie's tugboat rival, and a recurring one as Lars "Papa" Holstrum, on "The Farmer's Daughter". He died of a heart attack in 1971 at age sixty-five in Chicago, Illinois. Description above from the Wikipedia article Walter Sande, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia. ​

Rodney Hicks

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Rodney Hicks (born March 28, 1974, Montgomery Township, Pennsylvania) is an American stage and television actor. Raised in Philadelphia, he graduated from Roxborough High School in 1992 and left college in 1994 to pursue acting as a full time career. Shortly, he made his Broadway debut as part of the original cast of the hit landmark musical Rent. Before that, he earned early success performing alongside Lauryn Hill from the hip/hop group The Fugees in the musical Bring in the Morning - A Wake up Call followed by the John Adams and June Jordan pop opera I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky which was directed by acclaimed director Peter Sellars. He made his second appearance on Broadway in the 2000 revival of Jesus Christ Superstar playing the role of Peter and also starred in the revival of Charles Strouse's Golden Boy in the Sammy Davis Jr. role of Joe Bonaparte. He was last seen Off-Broadway in the 2006 revival of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris and can be heard on the new cast recording. He has appeared in top regional theatres across the country varying in plays from King Lear, Lobby Hero through to Ain't Misbehavin' and Two Gentlemen of Verona. His memorable TV turns has been as Delray Williams in NYPD Blue opposite Rick Schroder, the guest lead Jerome Davis in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent and more recently playing opposite Faith Ford and Johnny Galecki as Perry on the last season of ABC's Hope and Faith. Rodney returned to the Broadway cast of Rent in 2008 as Benjamin Coffin III. He was the final actor to play the role in the original Broadway production which closed that year. His performance was recorded in RENT: Filmed Live on Broadway. Rodney recently played the role of Clarence Norris in Kander & Ebb's New Musical 'The Scottsboro Boys' which was directed and choreographed by Tony Award Winner Susan Stroman at Off-Broadway's Vineyard Theatre. The show ran from Feb - April 18. It will be playing a follow up production at The Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota July 31 - September 25. The show has received 9 Drama Desk Nominations including Best New Musical, 6 Outer Critics Circle Awards including Best New Musical and is the winner of two Lucille Lortel Awards including Outstanding New Musical and Outstanding Choreography. The show opened on Broadway October 31, 2010 after beginning previews on the 6th of that month. It closed December 12, 2010. Description above from the Wikipedia article Rodney Hicks, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Tamara Davies

Date of Birth 6 June 1972, Moore, Oklahoma, USA Birth Name Tamara Marie Davis Nickname Tammy Height 5' 7" (1.70 m) Mini Biography Tamara Davies earned her degree in theater and voice from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, then moved to Los Angeles in 1998 to pursue work in television and film. In 2001 she appeared in five feature films including the action-thriller They Crawl (2001) and the science-fiction epic Scorcher (2002/I), starring opposite John Rhys-Davies and Rutger Hauer. Her television work includes Amy, a blind angel with a secret past on the daytime drama "Port Charles" (1997) and psychologist Tricia Quick on "The Bold and the Beautiful" (1987). Her theater credits include an updated version of Ivan Turgenev's "A Month in the Country," Isabella in "Measure for Measure," Louisa in "The Fantasticks" and "Into the Woods." Some of her favorite authors are James Joyce, Tom Robbins and Sylvia Plath. She is a solid supporter of breast cancer charities and causes that help the homeless, including helping to serve special Thanksgiving dinners at a downtown L.A. shelter. She enjoys sky diving, rock climbing, snow and water skiing. Growing up, she studied classical piano and later opera at the University of Iowa. Her past non-acting jobs include telemarketer, appointment maker and a bartender. She holds a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and did her own fighting stunts for her 2005 movie Black Dawn.

Daniel Roberts

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Daniel "Danny" Roberts (born 1966) is an Australian actor. He started with the Patch Theatre at age 12, and was in the first round at Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 1979. He moved to Melbourne in 1982 where he appeared in Cop Shop and The Sullivans. He then played a lead role in the soap opera Waterloo Station (1983), but the series was cancelled after a few months on air. He then became a major cast member in Sons and Daughters playing Andy Green from 1983 until the series ended in 1987. After Sons and Daughters he travelled to the United States where he met his wife. They married and had two children Alania Neil-Roberts, and David Jones-Roberts. Danny Roberts went on to a regular role in soap opera The Power, The Passion which ran for eight months in 1989. After the series was cancelled he moved to Byron Bay, New South Wales where he founded the Australian Theatre Company in 1991. He was Artistic Director of the company until 1995, then acted in the series Fire playing Georgie Parker's brother Ted Cartright. Other roles include The Last Bullet, Home and Away, Blue Heelers, Murder Call, Stingers, Young Lions, Big Sky, Close Contact. His film credits include, Blackwater Trail, Walking on Water, Beneath Clouds, Mission: Impossible 2, Dreamland. He worked on Underbelly: The Golden Mile. He currently plays Nate's father Gavin Cooper on Home and Away.

Chris Ellis

Cast · Known for That Thing You Do!, Catch Me If You Can

Chris Ellis (born April 14, 1956) is an American film and television actor. Ellis always wanted to be an actor because of television. He grew up in the 50's in the deep south in a "world of privation and violence", but saw on television people who seemed to have lives of ease and privilege. It took him seven years to finish college however, because "I have always been shiftless". During those years Chris became involved in community theatre in Memphis, where "I did and do still think the quality of the work has always been quite good". By the time he moved to New York, he had worked with many excellent actors in about two dozen plays, classical and contemporary. "I cannot imagine what might have supplanted that background for a newcomer in New York." His first part in either television or film came in 1979, where he played a truck driver in the TV movie The Suicide's Wife, which starred Angie Dickinson. The role resulted in very little TV or film work. After working in regional theatre for a year or so, Chris fell off the radar screen and did not work for about ten years. During that time he lived in "bone-grinding poverty" in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen. In one nine-month period of 1987, Chris accepted 102 dinner invitations. "I don't know why they kept arriving, nor why I counted them, though I do know why I accepted them." In 1990, a break came when he got a part in Days of Thunder, which starred Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Cary Elwes, Robert Duvall, and Randy Quaid. John C. Reilly and Fred Dalton Thompson also appear. This seemed to jump-start Ellis' career as parts in films like My Cousin Vinny with Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei, a small part in Addams Family Values, and a larger one in Apollo 13 as former NASA Mercury Seven astronaut Deke Slayton, alongside Tom Hanks, followed. He also began picking up credits on well-known television shows like Melrose Place, NYPD Blue, and The X-Files. Since working with Hanks on Apollo 13, the two have worked together on That Thing You Do, the TV miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, and Catch Me If You Can. Ellis returned to a fictional NASA Mission Control when he played a Flight Director in 1998's Armageddon. Additional films in which Ellis has appeared include Home Fries, October Sky, Live Free or Die Hard, and Transformers. His television credits also include The West Wing, Ghost Whisperer, Chicago Hope, The Pretender, Alias, JAG, CSI: NY, Burn Notice, and Cold Case. He appeared in three season one episodes of Millennium as group member Jim Panseayres. He has established a reputation as being particularly talented at portraying Southern lawmakers or serious military or police-type characters. He also appeared in Criminal Minds as Sheriff Jimmy Rhodes who calls for the BAU's help in investigating a string of murders in New Mexico. In addition to that, he also had two guest appearances in NCIS as Gunnery Sergeant John Deluca. Ellis's appearance in the Season 1 episode, "The Curse" was uncredited while his second and final appearance in Season 2's "The Bone Yard" was credited. Description above from the Wikipedia article Chris Ellis (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Julia Davis

Julia Charlotte L. Davis is an English actress, comedian, director and writer. A nine-time BAFTA TV Award nominee, she won Best Comedy Writing for Hunderby in 2013 and the 2018 British Academy Television Award for Best Scripted Comedy for Sally4Ever. She has also received two RTS Awards and three British Comedy Awards. In addition to acting in her own works, she has appeared in a variety of other British television comedies, most notably portraying Dawn Sutcliffe in Gavin & Stacey (2007–2009, 2019, 2024). Her film roles include Love Actually (2003), Cemetery Junction (2010), Four Lions (2010), and Phantom Thread (2017). Julia Davis was born in Guildford, Surrey on August 25, 1966 Her mother was a secretary, and her father a civil servant. She grew up in Guildford, Surrey, before moving at the age of 14 to Bath in Somerset. She was raised in the Church of England. After studying for a degree in English and drama at the College of Ripon and York St John, she returned to Bath working "dead-end jobs", starting a comedy double-act The Sisters of Percy with her friend Jane Roth at a local theatre group. It grew into an improv troupe with Welsh radio DJ Rob Brydon and Ruth Jones. Davis decided to become a comedian after a long illness. She secured her first comedy commission, Five Squeezy Pieces, from BBC Radio 4 in 1998. The series was an all-female sketch comedy show, with Meera Syal, Arabella Weir, Maria McErlane, and Claire Calman. She first appeared on television in 1998 in the BBC sketch show Comedy Nation. During their radio sketch series Five Squeezy Pieces, Arabella Weir introduced Davis to Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan who cast her as a regular cast member in the television sketch show Big Train (1998). Her career gained a further boost in 1998 after she sent a tape of various characters to Steve Coogan, who invited her to write for and participate in his shows during his 1998 national tour. Chris Morris, director of the Big Train pilot, cast her for his 1997–1999 radio series Blue Jam, its successor March–April 2000 TV show Jam, and Brass Eye. Davis went on to appear in many comedy television shows including I'm Alan Partridge, I Am Not an Animal, Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible, Ideal and Nathan Barley. In 2004 and 2005, Davis wrote and starred in two series of the BBC Three dark comedy Nighty Night. The show is centred on her character of peroxide "blonde" sociopathic beauty therapist Jill Tyrell. In 2015, Davis and Marc Wootton created and starred in BBC Radio 4 comedy series Couples, about couples in therapy. It was reported in 2015 that Davis had been commissioned for a new series, Robin's Test, which was later renamed Camping. In 2016, Davis wrote, directed and starred as shallow nymphomaniac "Fay" in Camping on Sky Atlantic. This was her directorial debut. At the 2017 BAFTA TV Awards, Camping was nominated for Best Scripted Comedy. In 2017, Davis was featured in the Paul Thomas Anderson film Phantom Thread as Lady Baltimore.