Search

Broderick Johnson

Producer · Executive Producer · Known for Blade Runner 2049, Practical Magic 2, Prisoners

Broderick Johnson is the co-founder and co-CEO of Alcon Entertainment, which he co-founded with his producing partner, Andrew Kosove, in 1997. His film credits include the Academy Award-nominated Best Picture, The Blind Side. His TV credits include The Expanse. Description above from the Wikipedia article Broderick Johnson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

IronE Singleton

Cast · Known for The Blind Side

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Robert "IronE" Singleton (born November 30, 1975) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Alton in The Blind Side and Theodore "T-Dog" Douglas in the AMC television series The Walking Dead.

Catherine Combs

Catherine Combs is an American stage and screen actress based in New York City. She is known for her work on HBO's "The Deuce", "Fosse/Verdon", "New Amsterdam" and "The Blind Side". Catherine has performed in numerous stage plays In New York City and across the United States including "A View From The Bridge" directed by Ivo Van Hove.

Omar J. Dorsey

Cast · Known for The Blind Side

Omar Dorsey (born December 22, 1975) is an American actor. He has appeared in films The Blind Side (2009), Django Unchained (2012), Selma (2014), and the Halloween series (2018 – 2022). On television, Dorsey starred as Hollingsworth "Hollywood" Desonier in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama series Queen Sugar (2016 – 2022) and had recurring roles on When They See Us (2019), Genius: Aretha (2021), Power Book III (2022), and Bookie (2023 – 2024).

Quinton Aaron

Cast · Known for The Blind Side

Quinton Aaron (born August 15, 1984) is an American actor. His first lead role was as Michael Oher in the 2009 film, The Blind Side.

John Lee Hancock

Director · Known for The Blind Side

John Lee Hancock Jr. (born December 15, 1956) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the films The Rookie (2002), The Alamo (2004), The Blind Side (2009), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), The Founder (2016), The Highwaymen (2019), The Little Things (2021), and Mr. Harrigan's Phone (2022). He also wrote the film A Perfect World (1993) screenplay. Description above from the Wikipedia article John Lee Hancock, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Afemo Omilami

Cast · Known for True Detective, Terminator Genisys

Afemo Omilami (born December 13, 1950) is an American actor. On television, in addition to numerous guest appearances, he had recurring roles on In the Heat of the Night (1989 - 1993), Ghost Whisperer (2007 - 2008), and Saints & Sinners (2016 - 2018). Omilami has played supporting film roles in Trading Places (1983), Glory (1989), The Firm (1993), Forrest Gump (1994), Gordy (1995), Remember the Titans (2000), Ray (2004), Hounddog (2007), The Blind Side (2009), Terminator Genisys (2015), and others.

Kim Dickens

Cast · Known for Gone Girl, Fear the Walking Dead, The Blind Side

Kimberly Jan Dickens (born June 18, 1965) is an American actress. Her film debut was in the 1995 comedy film Palookaville. Dickens played lead roles in the films Truth or Consequences, N.M. (1997), Zero Effect (1998) and Mercury Rising (1998). Her other films include Great Expectations (1998), Hollow Man (2000), House of Sand and Fog (2003), Thank You for Smoking (2005), The Blind Side (2009), Gone Girl (2014), Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016), Lizzie (2018), Land (2021), and The Good Nurse (2022). On television, Dickens had regular roles in the drama series Deadwood (2004–2006; 2019), Treme (2010–2013), and House of Cards (2015–2017). She stars as Madison Clark in the AMC horror drama series Fear the Walking Dead (2015–2018; 2022–present).

Tim McGraw

Cast · Known for The Blind Side, Tomorrowland

Samuel Timothy 'Tim' McGraw (born May 1, 1967) is an American country singer and actor. Many of his albums and singles have topped the country music charts, leading him to achieve total album sales in excess of 40 million units. He is married to country singer Faith Hill and is the son of former baseball player Tug McGraw. He had 11 consecutive albums debut at Number One on the Billboard albums charts. Twenty-one singles hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. He has won 3 Grammys, 14 Academy of Country Music awards, 11 Country Music Association (CMA) awards, 10 American Music Awards, and 3 People's Choice Awards. His Soul2Soul II Tour with his wife Faith Hill is the highest grossing tour in country music history, and one of the top five among all genres of music. He has ventured into acting, with supporting roles in The Blind Side (with Sandra Bullock), Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, and Four Christmases (with Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon), and lead roles in Flicka (2006) and Country Strong (2010). He was a minority owner of the Arena Football League's Nashville Kats. Taylor Swift's debut single, "Tim McGraw", refers to him and his song, "Can't Tell Me Nothin'". In honor of his grandfather's Italian heritage, he was honored by the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) in 2004, receiving the NIAF Special Achievement Award in Music during the Foundation's 29th Anniversary Gala. Description above from the Wikipedia article Tim McGraw, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Lily Collins

Cast · Known for Emily in Paris, The Blind Side, Tarzan

Lily Jane Collins (born 18 March 1989) is a British and American actress and model. Born in Guildford, Surrey and raised in Los Angeles, Collins began performing on screen at the age of two in the BBC comedy drama Growing Pains. In the late 2000s, Collins began acting and modelling more regularly, and she had a career breakthrough with her performance in the sports-drama film The Blind Side, which was the third highest-grossing film of 2009. She went on to appear in leading roles across feature films such as the sci-fi action-horror Priest (2011), the psychological action-thriller Abduction (2011), the fantasy Mirror Mirror (2012), the urban fantasy The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013), and the independent romantic comedies Stuck in Love (2012), The English Teacher (2013), and Love, Rosie (2014). Collins was critically acclaimed for her roles as Marla Mabrey in the comedy Rules Don't Apply (2016), which earned her a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and for her portrayal of a young adult with anorexia in the controversial Netflix drama To the Bone (2017). She has also achieved recognition for her work in biographical films: she starred as Liz Kendall in the Netflix drama Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019), as J.R.R. Tolkien's wife Edith in Tolkien (2019), and as Rita Alexander in Mank (2020), the latter of which was a critical success, earning 10 Academy Award nominations. Collins played Fantine in the BBC miniseries adaptation of Les Misérables (2018–2019), and, since 2020, she has portrayed Emily Cooper in the Netflix series Emily in Paris. For the latter, she received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. She made her writing debut with Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me (2017) in which she discussed her struggles with mental health, including an eating disorder she suffered as a teenager.

Maria Howell

Wanda Maria Howell is an American actress and also a singer. Maria was born in Gastonia, North Carolina and graduated from Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Howell worked as a jazz singer and made her film debut in The Color Purple. She lived in Okinawa, Japan, from 1995-2001. She made guest appearances on the television series Drop Dead Diva, Army Wives, The Game, Necessary Roughness, and The Vampire Diaries, and as well as co-starred in films that include Daddy's Little Girls, Mississippi Damned, The Blind Side, and What to Expect When You're Expecting. In 2013, Howell played Seeder in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Also in 2012, she was cast in the recurring NBC television series Revolution as Grace Beaumont, and in 2013 she plays Ida Hayes in the m comedy-drama Devious Maids.

Stacey Turner

Stacey Turner was born in Atlanta, GA to Peggy, a real estate broker and Jerry Turner, a government employee with the U.S. Department of Education. Stacey attended Georgia State University and after college moved around the U.S. for six years while pursuing a television news career. Atlanta was the final stop on the news circuit, where she worked as the morning reporter for CBS46's Good Morning Atlanta. While in the news biz Stacey earned an Emmy nomination, two Society of Professional Journalists Green Eyeshade Awards, and was selected as a favorite television personality by a local Texas magazine. Her first acting role was in a church play at the age of 6. For Stacey, being from a small town on the outskirts of Atlanta was about as far from Hollywood as a girl could be. It wouldn't be until many years later, doing a play while working as a reporter in Savannah, that the interest would be re-sparked. Stacey decided to leave a career in the news industry to pursue acting full time. It wasn't long before she landed a small role in the film The Blind Side (2009) starring Sandra Bullock. While in Atlanta she also booked roles on The Army Wives and Drop Dead Diva. Shortly after that Stacey moved to Los Angeles to continue her career. Since her move she has had the opportunity to work on several films with directors such as Sophia Coppola, The Bling Ring (2013), Phil Joanou, The Veil (2015) and Jonathan Liebesman, Battle: Los Angeles (2011). She has also worked on top rated television shows including Bones, Scandal, Graceland and Legends. - IMDb Mini Biography

Eaddy Mays

Eaddy Mays, an American actress and producer, was born in New York and raised by her mother. At eight years old, Mays transformed the basement of their home into the "Magic Theater," where her mother and dozens of stuffed animals were subjected to countless recreations of blockbuster films and Broadway plays with Mays starring in every role. By the age of ten, Mays was strongly encouraged by her mother to pursue this passion outside the home; she was cast in a community theatre production of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen." In the years that followed, Mays put her passion into the newly formed family business by hosting video presentations for the production company owned by her step-father, Bob Haymes, singer, actor and songwriter, who is known best for his song "That's All," an oft recorded tune now part of the Great American Songbook. This hosting work brought the teenage Mays to China in 1984 and later to Hong Kong and Japan. After graduating college and dabbling in commercial radio and television for several years, Mays began her acting career in earnest in 2009 when she was cast as Elaine in the Academy Award winning film "The Blind Side" in which she appeared opposite Sandra Bullock, in the infamous 'ladies who lunch' scenes. Before the film was released, Mays was cast as a cancer patient for a medical center commercial, in which she agreed to shave her head completely bald. Mays surprised producers by eagerly insisting that she be allowed to do the actual shearing herself and excitedly requested that the event be captured on video and posted on YouTube. This radical change in appearance prompted a shift in her career and shortly thereafter she was cast in MTV's supernatural thriller TV series,"Teen Wolf". She appeared occasionally in season one. But, throughout seasons two and three, she was featured as a chilling, memorable villain, garnering attention and praise from critics for her performance and gathering hate mail from more radical fans for her part as the evil nemesis of their beloved werewolves. Throughout the years, the same passion that led the eight-year-old Mays to create "Magic Theater" in her basement sent her to diving into the murky waters of film and television producing. Mays co-wrote, produced and starred in the full-length independent feature film, "Highland Fling," a romantic comedy about a fun-loving Scotsman and a straight-laced southern belle shooting a reality TV show at a Scottish Highland Festival in small town America. Simultaneously, Mays and her angelically patient, sleep-deprived crew shot the actual series pilot for the television show featured in the film. Mays has a long history of volunteer work with kids, beginning first in college where she was a "big sister" in Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. Later, she served as the Custodian and Legal Guardian for two displaced young girls in the custody of the State's Foster Care program. These experiences compelled Mays to help create and manage The Highland House, a homeless shelter for at-risk youth displaced from their home. Mays still volunteers with youth today, works in Los Angeles; she has three children (with a basement theater of their own!); Cali, a Percheron mare; Kidiot, a barn cat ....and almost enough hours in the day.

Andrew A. Kosove

Producer · Executive Producer · Known for Blade Runner 2049, Practical Magic 2, Prisoners

Andrew A. Kosove is an American film and television producer who has been a producer or executive producer on 35 films. He was nominated for an Academy Award for the film The Blind Side. Alongside his producing partner, Broderick Johnson, he is the co-founder and co-CEO of Alcon Entertainment, a Los Angeles–based film and television production and financing company. Kosove is also an avid marathon runner and triathlete. Description above from the Wikipedia article Andrew Kosove, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Jae Head

Cast · Known for The Blind Side

Jae Head (born December 27, 1996) is an American teen actor. He is best known for portraying Sean Junior (S.J.) Tuohy, son of Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy (played by Tim McGraw and Sandra Bullock), in the 2009 film The Blind Side directed by John Lee Hancock. Head first gained popularity by playing Bo Miller, a young boy befriended by Tim Riggins on the television series Friday Night Lights. Subsequently, show creator Peter Berg cast Head in his film Hancock alongside Will Smith, Charlize Theron, and Jason Bateman.

Sandra Bullock

Cast · Known for Gravity, Practical Magic, Premonition

Sandra Annette Bullock (/ˈbʊlək/; born July 26, 1964) is an American actress and film producer. The highest-paid actress of 2010 and 2014, Bullock's filmography spans both comedy and drama, and her accolades include an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. She was named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the world in 2010. After making her acting debut with a minor role in the thriller Hangmen (1987), Bullock received early attention for her supporting role in the action film Demolition Man (1993). Her breakthrough in the action thriller Speed (1994) led to leading roles in the romantic comedy While You Were Sleeping (1995), as well as the dramas A Time to Kill (1996) and Hope Floats (1998). She achieved further success in the following decades with the comedies Miss Congeniality (2000), Two Weeks Notice (2002), The Proposal (2009), The Heat (2013), Ocean's 8 (2018), and The Lost City (2022); the dramas Crash(2004) and The Unforgivable (2021); and the thrillers Premonition (2007) and Bird Box(2018). For her portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy in the biographical drama The Blind Side(2009), Bullock won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She was nominated for the same award for playing an astronaut stranded in space in the science fiction thriller Gravity (2013), her highest-grossing live-action film. In addition to acting, Bullock founded the production company Fortis Films. She has produced some of the films in which she has starred, including Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005) and All About Steve (2009), and served as an executive producer on the ABC sitcom George Lopez (2002–2007), on which she made numerous appearances. Dubbed "America's sweetheart" by the media, Bullock was named the Most Beautiful Woman by People magazine in 2015. Description above from the Wikipedia article Sandra Bullock, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Tom Nowicki

Cast · Known for The Blind Side

Tom Nowicki is an American actor who has appeared in several feature films, television series, mini-series and movies of the week. He is a member of the Actors' Equity Association and the Screen Actors' Guild who is best remembered for his lead appearance on RollerJam (1999–2001) and also appeared in the television pilot of L.A. Confidential. Nowicki received his Bachelor of Arts degree of Yale University in 1979 and received dramatic training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1987. He also spent time as a professional wrestler from 1983 to 1986 as "Lord Larry Oliver" in the Dixie Wrestling Alliance.[2] Among his many television appearances as either a guest star or recurring roles, his lengthiest role as a regular came from 1999 to 2001 as a lead on The New TNN's (now Spike TV's) modern-day roller derby program RollerJam as "Kenneth Loge III", the World Skating League general manager, Florida Sundogs manager and subsequent league commissioner who stood for moral decency and campaigned against sex and violence in the league. He also portrayed Kenneth's twin brother "Leonard Loge III", a world traveler who was more of a free spirit and also managed the Sundogs and had the hots for skater Lindsey Francis. Among the motion pictures he has appeared in, Nowicki starred opposites Denzel Washington in Remember The Titansas well as The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock.

Cilla Black

Priscilla Maria Veronica White is best known by her stage name Cilla Black. She rose to fame in the 1960s as a pop singer and her singles "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and "You're My World" both reached number one in the UK in 1964. She hosted her own variety show titled "Cilla" in the 60s and 70s and was an occasional comedy actress. Her career had a massive resurgence in the mid-80s and 1990s were she presented "Blind Date" were many tuned in for her acerbic comments, "Surprise Surprise" showed her softer side and "The Moment of Truth" was her successful peaktime game show. In the 2000s she put in memorable appearances on chat shows such as "The Paul O'Grady Show", "Loose Women" and "So Graham Norton". She died on 1st August 2015 after a fall in her villa in Estepona, Spain. The day after her funeral, the compilation album The Very Best of Cilla Black went to number one on the UK Albums Chart and the New Zealand Albums Chart; it was her first number one album.

Marta McGonagle

Marta McGonagle’s first theatrical release was in March 2007, IFC’s “Believe In Me” (with Samantha Mathis, Jeffrey Donovan, Heather Matarazzo and Bruce Dern). Marta played one of the lead players as Sadie York in this inspirational tale of an Oklahoman all-female basketball team in the 1960′s. A promising start, for a young actress who hasn’t been in Los Angeles but two years. Marta McGonagle’s film career began in Texas in the award winning independent films, “Land of Shadowed Sand” and “SideFX“. She was directed by Ain’t It Cool News’ Aaron Morgan, playing an ancient vampire, Angela Rosefe, in “Blind“. Marta then landed her breakout role in “Red Ridge” where she played Isabella, an immigrant forced into sex slavery and prostitution. Soon after that she traveled to Costa Rica for the lead role opposite Joaquim de Almeida in “Blue Sombrero” as a teen who takes over her late father’s (de Almeida) presidency with the help of a rouge military squad. In 2005, Marta made the move to Los Angeles. After spending most the early part of her still very young career doing dramas and horror films, she was finally able to put her sketch/comedy background to use in the comedies “Fist in the Eye” and “Twins“. She also landed her first television roles in Nickelodeon’s “Drake & Josh“, Comedy Central’s “Reno 911“, and as a recurring sketch player in Fox’s “Talk Show with Spike Feresten“. Marta also returned to the stage for ten months performing at the World Famous Comedy Store with the sketch troupe Gumbo. She can also be seen on the web starring opposite Rachael Leigh Cook in, “Half Court Push“, which she and Rachel volunteered for, in support of the Stayfree’s Girls In The Directors Chair series. Coming to your cell phones this summer on Freemantle’s Atomic Wedgie Channel, she is Carmen, in the comedy series “Secret Girlfriend“. In 2008, “The Spot” a film expected to be released theatrically, she stars as Monica a Congo player trapped in an abusive relationship and a dream that might never come true. Marta just finished filming Bavaria Film’s, “Short Cut to Hollywood“, a road trip feature shooting throughout the United States. Bavaria is excited to have added Marta to the stellar cast in this international film as the sexy, free spirited Shannon. She is currently filming “The Winged Man“, scribed by Motorcycle Diaries Academy nominated, Jose Rivera, starring opposite Shalim Ortiz with Ana Ortiz. Once a week Marta gives back to the community through acting by teaching Los Angeles elementary school children about literacy and to never give up in the two-woman play, Sor Juana, through the non-profit organization Enrichment Works.

Rutina Wesley

Cast · Known for The Last of Us, True Blood, Hannibal

Rutina Wesley (born February 1, 1979) is an American film, stage, and television actress best known for her role as Tara Thornton on the HBO series True Blood and Nova Bordelon on OWN’s Queen Sugar. Wesley was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her father, Ivery Wheeler, is a professional tap dancer, and her mother, Cassandra Wesley, was a showgirl. She attended high school at the Las Vegas Academy of International Studies, Performing and Visual Arts. She studied dance at Simba Studios and the West Las Vegas Arts Center. While at the Las Vegas Academy, Wesley missed some auditions for college training programs. She finally decided to attend the University of Evansville in Indiana. After Wesley earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance in 2001, her grandmother suggested that she do a nursing course to have a practical fallback job, but Wesley insisted on pursuing her artistic education. She enrolled at the Juilliard School in 2001 and graduated in May 2005 (Group 34). Her studies included a summer spent at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. In December 2006, Wesley was featured in David Hare's Broadway play The Vertical Hour. In 2007, Wesley also appeared in The Public Theater production of In Darfur by playwright Winter Miller, co-starring Heather Raffo and Aaron Lohr, among others. Wesley had a minor role in the 2005 film Hitch, which was edited out in the final cut. In 2007, she made her on-screen debut as the main character in the film How She Move, from British director Ian Iqbal Rashid. The character Raya Green, who enters a step-dancing competition to secure funds for her education, was inspired by Tony Manero, portrayed by John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. Prior to the shooting of the film, Wesley underwent a five-week dance rehearsal period. Portraying a woman of Jamaican descent, she also took dialect coaching for the role. Wesley auditioned for the role Tara Thornton in the HBO series True Blood in 2007 and secured the part after creator Alan Ball chose her because "[she] was the first person who showed [Tara's] vulnerable side" In January 2015, it was announced that Wesley had been cast in a recurring role on the NBC drama series Hannibal. She portrayed Reba McClane, "a blind woman who enters into a relationship with Francis Dolarhyde (Richard Armitage), and helps soothe his murderous urges—at least at first." Wesley appeared as Liza Warner in the fourth season of Arrow. In 2016, Wesley was cast as the lead character Nova Bordelon in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama series Queen Sugar, produced by Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey. In 2023, Wesley portrayed Maria in the HBO series The Last of Us.

William Benedict

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. William Benedict (April 16, 1917 – November 25, 1999) was an American actor, perhaps best known for playing "Whitey" in Monogram Pictures' The Bowery Boys series. Born in Haskell, Oklahoma, he took part in school theatricals, and on leaving school he made his way to Hollywood. His first film was $10 Raise (1935) starring Edward Everett Horton, which launched Benedict on a busy career. The blond-haired Benedict almost always played juvenile roles, such as newsboys, messengers, office boys, and farmhands. In 1939, when Universal Pictures began its Little Tough Guys series to compete with the popular Dead End Kids features, Billy Benedict was recruited into the cast. These films led him into the similar East Side Kids movies (usually playing a member of the East Side gang, but occasionally in villainous roles). The East Side Kids became The Bowery Boys in 1946, and Benedict stayed with the series (as "Whitey") through the end of 1951. Other films included My Little Chickadee (1940) starring W. C. Fields and Mae West, The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), Ed Wood's Bride of the Monster (1955), The Sting (1973) and Farewell, My Lovely (1975). Benedict never shook his juvenile image completely, and continued to play messengers and news vendors well into his sixties. He also worked often in television commercials.

Jim Castillo

Jim Castillo Phillips is an American certified broadcast meteorologist at KSDK 5 On Your Side in St. Louis, Missouri. Castillo previously worked at WNYW in New York City, KCBS and KTLA in Los Angeles, and WTXF in Philadelphia. He also spent time in Seattle; first as chief meteorologist at KCPQ in Seattle and later a meteorologist at KOMO. He also worked on film and television projects, including the CBS drama Criminal Minds and the BBC America series Torchwood: Miracle Day. While working full-time in television news, Castillo also acted in movies Leap of Faith, Blink, With Honors, and Duplex. In 2015, he left KTLA to get married and moved to northern Indiana where he became a commercial real estate broker. In January 2020, he moved with his family back to his hometown of St. Louis. He is a SAG-AFTRA vested member and has been certified by the American Meteorological Society with the CBM Seal of Approval.

Mick Hucknall

Michael James Hucknall (born 8 June 1960) is an English singer and songwriter. Hucknall achieved international fame in the 1980s as the lead singer and songwriter of the soul-influenced pop band Simply Red, with whom he enjoyed a 25-year career and sold over 50 million albums. Hucknall was described by Australian music magazine Rhythms as "one of the truly great blue-eyed soul singers", while Q credited him with "the most prodigious voice this side of Motown". Hucknall, born at Saint Mary's Hospital, Manchester, on 8 June 1960, was an only child. His mother abandoned the family when he was three; the upheaval caused by this event inspired him to write "Holding Back the Years", which would become one of Simply Red's biggest and best-known hits. He was brought up in Denton by his father, Reginald (1935–2009), a barber in Stockport. According to Hucknall he had a happy childhood until the age of 10, when he began to clash with his father "because there was no woman to act as referee". He attended Audenshaw School, before continuing his education at Tameside College and Manchester Polytechnic's School of Art, where he was a fine art student: whilst at art school he lived in Hulme. It would not be until the mid-1990s that he would reconnect with his mother, Maureen, who was by then living in the US city of Dallas. As of a 2008 interview, he had only seen her twice since she left. He is of Irish ancestry from his mother, whose father was from County Offaly, along with his paternal grandmother. His maternal grandmother was Jewish. Hucknall was among the people present at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester in June 1976 where the Sex Pistols were playing. His interest in the music scene led to the launch of his career in the late 1970s, when he was part of the band Frantic Elevators. The Frantic Elevators released four singles, including a version of "Holding Back the Years", which he later recorded with Simply Red. As lead singer and core member of Simply Red, he became the identifiable face of the band. His face and long curly red hair were featured prominently on album artwork and in videos. In 1997, Hucknall won an Outstanding Achievement award from the Music of Black Origin Awards (MOBO Awards) despite being white. Hucknall is also one of the founders and financial backers of the reggae label Blood and Fire. He also manages the record label simplyred.com. In October 2007, on David Jensen's show on the Gold network, he announced Simply Red would split in 2009. In 2008, he released his first solo album Tribute to Bobby, a tribute to the blues musician Bobby "Blue" Bland. In October 2009, Hucknall appeared at a charity performance as vocalist for a re-formed version of Faces, replacing Rod Stewart. In October 2011, he was awarded with a BASCA Gold Badge award in recognition of his contribution to music. In October 2012, he released American Soul, a collection of his favourite music re-recorded with his vocals. ... Source: Article "Mick Hucknall" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Vida Ghaffari

Multi award-winning actress Vida Ghaffari was born and raised in the Washington DC metropolitan area. The daughter of a NASA scientist and an artist, Vida was infused with a diverse artistic and analytical upbringing. Vida graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) with a major in Economics (to please her strict Persian father) and minored in theatre and communication for her own artistic growth and expression. While at UMCP, Vida performed in a lot of improv shows at the school’s avant garde black box theatre and participated in a few plays. After college,she started training with a number of acting coaches and completed the full improv program at the prestigious Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB), which was created by Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation) and some of her colleagues. At this time, she began acting in feature films and TV. This acting powerhouse landed a great co-starring role in Mindy Kaling's humorous and much buzzed about show The Mindy Project as well as ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live. She has also starred in Comedy Central's Mind of Mencia. These projects cap off a number of successes for the versatile starlet. She recently featured Variety for her work in multi award-winning filmmaker Harley Wallen’s Abeyance opposite an impressive ensemble cast consisting of Scout Taylor-Compton, Richard Tyson, Billy Wirth, Mel Novak, Kaiti Wallen and Yan Birch. Vida played the role of the cunning and powerful, femme fatale scientist Nikita, which garnered her international coverage given the power of the story, the cast and Vida portraying a scientist like her famous father. Vida is also a frequent collaborator of filmmaker Dustin Ferguson, who has been awarded numerous awards for his innovative films. In the upcoming sci-fi thriller Robowoman, she was cast alongside a stellar ensemble cast consisting of Dawna Lee Heising, Brinke Stevens (Slumber Party Massacre), Mel Novak, Sue Price (Nemesis 5: The New Model), Gregory Blair and Peter Stickles. In this film, she once again played an educated medical researcher Hannah. She also worked played the badass, hold no prisoners role of Becky in Ferguson’s Horndog’s Beach Party opposite Lee Heising and Saved By the Bell’s Troy Fromin. She also starred in the pivotal role of school security guard Joan in Nation’s Fire with two-time Oscar nominee Bruce Dern, Gil Bellows, UFC fighter Chuck Liddell, Krista Grotte and many others. The ultimate horror scream queen, she then played the role of the possessed Hayley in Holy Terror opposite Kristine DeBell (Meatballs) and Mel Novak (Bruce Lee's Game of Death, Black Belt Jones). For her compelling performance in that film, she was billed as the “Persian Linda Blair” by prominent journalist Maurice Dwayne Smith. She also portrayed the role of serious reporter Sabrina Sanchez in noted filmmaker Romane Simon’s Hybristophilia alongside Quinton Aaron (the Blindside with Sandra Bullock). She also recently shot Levin Garbisch’s Miranda Veil, where she plays the touching role of Alice Veil, a concerned mother who may or may not be what she seems.