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Riley Smith on That One Audition with Alyshia Ochse

Riley Smith
Riley Smith 1920 960 Alyshia Ochse

Riley Smith is an immensely talented actor whose body of work comes to life in diverse roles across television and film. With a promising new series, Riley’s star is quickly on the rise.

Riley Smith has most recently been cast to co-star in the CW’s up and coming hit Nancy Drew. The series is set the summer following Nancy Drew’s high school graduation, where she and several teens throughout the town are suspects of murder. The victim? Smith’s characters, Ryan Hudson’s, socialite wife. Nancy Drew can be seen following Riverdale on the CW starting in October of 2019.

Before landing the role of Ryan Hudson, Smith had wrapped up his role of Levi Scott in Fox series Proven Innocent, and prior to that was Dr. Will Grant on the CW series Life Sentence.

Smith was the lead in the CW series Frequency, which premiered October 2016. In this re imagining of the 2000 New Line film, Peyton List plays a female police detective in 2016 who discovers that she is able to speak via a ham radio with her estranged father (Smith), also a detective, but who died in 1996. They forge a new relationship while working together on an unresolved murder case. However, unintended consequences of the butterfly effect wreak havoc in the present day.

In 2015, Smith was seen in a strong arc in Season 4 of the popular ABC musical series Nashville. Playing Markus Keen, an artist signed to Rayna’s Highway 65 label, Smith merged his love for music and acting, recording singles, such as “In the Name of Your Love” and “I Want To (Do Everything For You,” for the Nashville soundtrack. Also in 2015, Smith scored a recurring role as Rachel McAdam’s boyfriend, Sheriff’s deputy Steve Mercier, on HBO’s True Detective, the second installment in the crime franchise. This role followed his previous stint on the pay cable network as a vampire on the seventh and final season of HBO’s True Blood. Smith played Keith, a rugged, rock ‘n’ roll vampire with a romantic side and story line opposite Arlene, played by Carrie Preston.

Previously, Smith had recurring roles in the Emmy-nominated CBS series Joan of Arcadia, the highly acclaimed Fox show 24, the WB series Summerland, and Judd Apatow’s master creation for NBC Freaks and Geeks. He was a main character in the Fox show Drive and appeared in seven episodes of the fifth season of CW’s 90210 as Riley Wallace, a paraplegic opposite Shenae Grimes, and Tristan Wilds. He can also be seen in television movies including Disney Channel’s Motocrossed and Nicholas Sparks’ Deliverance Creek.

Smith’s other credits were in films as diverse as Radio (Ed Harris, Cuba Gooding Jr.), Eight-Legged Freaks, Not Another Teen Movie, New York Minute, as well as Gallowwalkers (Wesley Snipes), Weapons, the Sundance Grand Jury Nominee, and Christmas in Conway (Andy Garcia, Mary-Louis Parker). Over the past twenty years since Smith has called Los Angeles home, he has managed to complete more than seventy-five projects: fourteen pilots, nine series, and dozens of guest star roles.

Resources

RILEY SMITH’S LINKS:

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THAT ONE AUDITION’S LINKS:

012 Yolonda Ross on That One Audition with Alyshia Ochse

Yolonda Ross
Yolonda Ross 1920 960 Alyshia Ochse

Grace of Intuition

Yolonda Ross can currently be seen reprising her role as the no-nonsense single mother ‘Jada’ in the fourth season of Showtime’s acclaimed series, The Chi. The show was created by Emmy award winner Lena Waithe that explores the interconnectedness of a neighborhood community of characters on the South Side of Chicago, featuring current storylines that range from defunding the police to her character’s fight against breast cancer.

An independent film darling, Yolonda made her feature film debut in the award-winning independent film Stranger Inside in 2001. Yolonda went on to win an IFP Gotham Award for Best Breakthrough Performance for the role, as well as received her first Film Independent Spirit Award nomination in the category of Best Debut Performance. In 2014, her work in the John Sayles film Go For Sisters garnered her a second Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

She appeared in Denzel Washington’s award-winning feature Antwone Fisher, as well as the independent films Yelling To the Sky opposite Zoe Kravitz, Woody Allen’s Whatever Works, Lila and Eve starring Viola Davis and Jennifer Lopez, Whitney directed by Angela Bassett for the Lifetime Movie Network, Annie Silverstein’s Bull, Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There, Ana Lily Amirpour’s Bad Batch, Nuotama Bodomo’s Afronauts, and Elegance Bratton’s award-winning short film Walk For Me, in which Yolonda starred and produced.

Yolonda has also portrayed recurring characters on several high-profile series including, Ms. Green in the Baz Luhrmann Netflix series The Get Down, Claudia on ABC’s How To Get Away With Murder, and her role as documentarian Dana Lyndsey on HBO’s Treme. Additional television credits include guest starring roles on Law and Order, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, 24, and Chicago PD. She was featured in the PBS American Masters documentary How it Feels To Be Free, about Trailblazing African American Women Entertainers.

Yolonda made her directorial debut with the 10-minute hybrid short film/music video Breaking Night, about a young girl taking control of her destiny. The short film officially became the music video for the famed Manfred Mann song, “Blinded By the Light,” and was in rotation on VH-1 Classics.

Most recently she performed in David Mamet’s newest play Four American Women during the pandemic. The two have developed a mutual admiration of each other’s work which inspired him to write for Yolonda the roles of Nora in the hit show The Unit, and Kelly in the biopic Phil Spector for HBO.

As a writer and director, Yolonda is currently developing her feature debut, Scenes From Our Marriage, along with other film and television projects.

Resources

LINKS:
QUOTES:

“I am placed here for a reason. I am placed her for Black women.”

“I use music for everything. I understood emotion through music so dialogue kind of became lyrics to me. I used my repertoire of music to understand how to evoke emotion.”

“I will ask other actors about scents because there’s a certain memory you get when you smell people. If we start working together I will ask them what they like so I can wear it for them.”

Credits:

  • WRITER: Juan Francisco Villa
  • SOUND DESIGN: Zachary Jameson
  • WEBSITE & GRAPHICS: Chase Jennings
  • ASSISTANT: Elle Powell
  • SOCIAL OUTREACH: Bebe Katsenes
Necar Zadegan on That One Audition with Alyshia Ochse

082: Necar Zadegan
082: Necar Zadegan 1500 750 Alyshia Ochse

Today we’re sitting down with television, film, and theatre actress Necar Zadegan. From her break-out performance on the hit TV series 24, to her starring turn on Broadway with Robin Williams in the Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, and her roles in Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce and currently in NCIS: New Orleans, Necar has built her career playing fierce, powerful, and passionate women who always leave us wanting more.

She shares how her upbringing afforded her exposure to the arts from an early age and how her parent’s encouragment kept her going as she ultimately found herself on stage in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival at 16 years old. After a few years in the theatre honing her craft and obtaining a literature degree, she made her way to Los Angeles, and shares how her determination to find collaborative relationships guided her into a career on screen. From her audition for 24, to reading for a play workshop that ultimately lead her to Broadway, she honestly answers a few of the listeners questions, and shares how she goes about trusting her voice, winning the room, and making fans of future collaborators.

Prior to that Necar scoring her star level turn as Delia Hassen on the mega-hit Fox TV series, ’24’ for Season 8, her television credits include “Harry’s Law,””A Gifted Man”,”CSI: Miami,” “The Shield,” “Nip/Tuck,” “The Unit,” “NCIS,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Lost” among others. Necar graduated with honors from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a degree in English Literature.

Tune in

Listen On iTunes

 

Resources

LINKS:
QUOTES:

“I didn’t enter this business to play different versions of Iranian women. I entered this business to play different characters of all kinds…”

“Whatever you think might be a disadvantage, can also be an advantage.”

VIDEOS:

029: Henry Ian Cusick
029: Henry Ian Cusick 1500 1000 Alyshia Ochse

Looking Back Episode with HENRY IAN CUSICK who was born in Peru, raised in Trinidad and Scotland and he now lives in Hawaii. He trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama before joining the Citizens Theatre Glasgow.

Cusick starred in numerous British TV shows before moving to the U.S. to join the cast of the ABC TV series LOST. In 2006 he was nominated for an Emmy for his role as Desmond Hume and continued as a series regular for 5 seasons. He played a series regular in ABC’s Scandal and had recurring roles on 24, SVU: Law and Order, Fringe, The Mentalist and Body of Proof. He is currently a series regular, in the role of Marcus Kane on The CW’s The 100.

He has also written, produced, directed and stars in his first short film “dress” which won Best Short at Honolulu International Film Festival, Peace on Earth Film Festival and was a finalist at USA Film Festival.

Tune into our Interview on iTunes HERE

 

Resources

LINKS:
QUOTES:

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VIDEOS:

010: Lane Garrison
010: Lane Garrison 1500 1000 Alyshia Ochse

Lane Garrison accepted a dare in his senior year of high school and auditioned for the chorus line in the school musical. He didn’t get it, but it gave him the confidence to explore that side of himself. A true Texan boy filled with grit and growth he didn’t follow the rules, he only followed the intensity of his calling to make movies. After graduation he followed his instincts and headed west. But it didn’t come easy for Lane, it took over 6 years to get a theatrical agent. Lane didn’t give himself a backup plan, instead he strategized and worked hard to make opportunities happen for himself. After Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Oscar win for Goodwill Hunting, Lane figured his way into the acting world would be to write himself the part. A deal made over a 10 mile run and a game of basketball with Adam Sandler landed him with the biggest agents in Hollywood. Listen in to hear how Lane followed the “clues to his success” landing him in dynamic roles in Quality of Life, Shooter, Camp Xray, Prison Break, Bonnie and Clyde, From Dusk till Dawn, Better Call Saul, and Roots. The role on Roots garnered Lane a Critics’ Choice Award Nomination for “Best Supporting Actor In A Movie Made For Television Or Miniseries.

Tune into our interview right HERE

Resources

QUOTES:

“Once you start to overcome your own fears and your own self doubts, then you can really start to rise.”

“Coincidences are God’s way of staying anonymous.” TWEET THIS

“Success leaves clues.” TWEET THIS

LINKS:
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ALYSHIA OCHSE

Los Angeles-based actress, bestselling author, host of That One Audition podcast, entrepreneur, & mother.

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