Nancy Beverly’s film script SHELBY’S VACATION had the distinction of making the semi-finals of Chicago’s 2011 Pride Films and Plays contest and then being hand-picked by its executive director David Zak for a rollicking reading he directed at a 2011 gay pride event in Vermont.
Nancy’s professional life began at Actors Theatre of Louisville, home of the world-renown Humana Festival of New American Plays. She worked as the Assistant Literary Manager and read literally thousands of scripts, acted as dramaturg on a number of Humana Festival plays – and had several of her own plays produced in the ATL short-play showcases. One of those plays, ATTACK OF THE MORAL FUZZIES, was published in ATL’s first anthology of ten minute plays in 1989 and has been produced several times a year in the U.S. and Canada ever since.
She moved from Louisville to Los Angeles to pursue a career in television and over the years worked on such hit shows as DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES and GHOST WHISPERER. When not pitching or writing TV scripts, she worked for show runners, which meant tracking a multitude of production elements – scripts, rewrites, cast needs, crew logistics, shooting schedules, budget concerns, post production, and daily deadlines.
Simultaneously, she’s continued working in theatre. Her comedy COMMUNITY made the top 12 in the national American Association of Community Theatres contest in 2015, and her writers/actors group Fierce Backbone producer her play HANDCRAFTED HEALING in L.A. in September of 2015. Her other Los Angeles play productions include A NEW YOU at the Celebration Theatre and GODISLAV at the Miles Memorial Playhouse, for which she wore the fund-raiser and producer hats as well. Additionally, GODISLAV had the honor of being selected for the Playwrights Showcase of the Western Region in Denver in 2005.
The first 11 episodes of THE CALAMITIES OF JANE, a webseries she co-wrote and co- produced, have been shot and are on now up on the web.
Nancy has been an avid hiker since her Girl Scout days and has been a trip leader in Los Angeles with the Sierra Club, which just honored her for leading 300 hikes. She will be drawing upon her passion for and knowledge of the mountains for the shooting of SHELBY’S VACATION.
As a writer/director, Victoria Rose Sampson wrote, directed and co-produced the award-winning short film CLICK THREE TIMES starring Isabel Sanford (THE JEFFERSONS) in collaboration with co-producer Chantal Marie, which began a long and fruitful production alliance. The two have collaborated on a number of short films and short documentaries, and since 2008, Vickie has written and directed over 15 commercials (including Grand Prize winner HER NEED FOR SPEED for Harley Davidson) and award-winning PSAs which have aired nationally. Along with Chantal, Vickie is co-producing and editing a spec TV pilot, AWESOME COUNTY USA.
Vickie has filmmaking in her blood, having been born in Hollywood to film editor and B movie director Sherman Rose and Academy Award winning sound editor Kay Rose. Vickie worked with her mom for many years and together they did the sound editing on such highly regarded films as: New York, New York, The Rose, Ordinary People, On Golden Pond, Prince of Tides, For the Boys, and The River, which earned Kay her Oscar.
As ADR Supervisor, Vickie has worked directly with such powerhouse actors as Robert DeNiro, Liza Minnelli, Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Bette Midler, Harrison Ford, Sir Alec Guinness, Barbra Streisand, Nick Nolte, Robert Redford, and many more.
Vickie continued in her mother’s footsteps and supervised the sound on Donnie Darko (directed by Richard Kelly), Frailty (Bill Paxton), Guarding Tess (Hugh Wilson), IRONWEED (Hector Babenco), The Proposition (John Hillcoat), and many other films. She also supervised ADR on Speed, (Jan de Bont, which won an Oscar for best sound editing) Red Eye, Scream 4 (Wes Craven), and all of the London ADR for RETURN OF THE JEDI (Richard Marquand).
As a sound editor, with over 169 feature film credits, she has worked with such directors as Mark Rydell (The Rose, For The Boys), Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City 1 and 2), Ed Zwick (About Last Night 1986), Tom Shadyac (Evan AlmightY), and Gore Verbinski (PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN: CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL).
She also teaches post-production sound at Video Symphony, USC, UCLA, Moviola Digital and AFI as well as guest lectures about the sound and director relationship.
Her most recent directing achievement is a 30 second PSA made by Women in Film LA for the Down Syndrome Research and Treatment Foundation. The PSA, FREE TO BE, stars 20 kids with Down Syndrome and their families and recently won both a Telly Award and a Gold Aurora Award.
In just two short years of getting back in the acting game, Laura Grimaldi has booked eight shorts, several TV shows, including MY CRAZY EX and CRY WOLFE, and the feature film VERONA, which was shown at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival February 2016. She also made the top 25 out of 85 contestants in the 2015 L.A.’s One Minute Monologue contest this past November.
Laura grew up in San Jose, California, and by the age of five she got bit by the performing bug and started voice and music lessons a few years later. In school she was very active in the music community where she played violin and acoustic bass in her school orchestra, bass guitar in her school’s jazz band and saxophone in the high school concert and marching band. She then took a hiatus from the entertainment field as she raised her family.
Flash forward 25 years: Laura reconnected with her high school sweetheart David (now a successful and award-winning sound editor), and since marrying David and moving back to L.A. from Virginia with her girls in August 2013, Laura has actively pursued her dream of acting. “I may be late in the game, but it’s never too late to reinvent a new you and change your chapters,” she says.
Brynn Horrocks is an American actor who has worked in film, theater and television.
She has received public and industry notice for her recurring role as Abigail Whitman — the fiercely cruel mother of the series’ protagonist Don Draper (Jon Hamm) on AMC’s critically-acclaimed series MAD MEN.
Her latest national commercial for Wells Fargo earned the attention of social media and commentary from Rachel Maddow. She has also been featured in national commercials for such iconic brands as Subaru, AT&T U-verse, Mercedes, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Meryl Lynch, Honda, Nissan, Miracle Whip, and Wendy’s among others.
Most recently, you can see her portraying Bernadette McLaughlin alongside Catherine Keener and Alfred Molina in Paul Haggis’s HBO mini-series, SHOW ME A HERO.
Born and raised in rural Washington State, Horrocks spent her college summers as a cast member of the Playmill Theater in West Yellowstone, Montana. After leaving college Horrocks promptly set out to earn money for her move to Los Angeles. From Washington she drove to Colorado and found work at a gravel pit as a weigh-station-girl.
“I moved to Los Angles in my hand me down Honda Accord that served as my home for a bit. I valet parked cars and sold snow skis while trying to get auditions. A Hollywood photographer swindled me of all my hard-earned savings; a shady ‘manager’ wasted my time. Luckily, this ‘manager’s’ assistant took it upon himself to get me a proper interview with a real commercial agent. I booked my first job a couple of months later.”
Regardless of creative medium — music, Indi film, commercial or critically acclaimed television — Horrocks focuses on character.
“I love working within & diving into the life of a character, finding the minutiae and visceral fiber that make a person this person. I seek to bring the character to life by making connections.”
Kimby Caplan is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has aired on PBS, ABC, and NBC affiliates. Her documentaries and short films have screened in festivals around the country and internationally. A documentary lensed by Caplan, CUBAMERICAN, about Cuban Exiles featuring Andy Garcia and Steven Bauer has screened nationally, with a PBS run in 2014-2015. Caplan just wrapped as Second Unit DP on SCOUT, an indie feature starring Jane Seymour, Ellen Burstyn, and Danny Glover, among others. Caplan is the recipient of a 2005 Student Academy Award for her documentary LISTEN, which also received a Juror’s First Place at the Black Maria Film Festival and a Silver Remi Award from Houston Worldfest. A 35mm short film, SONG OF DAVID, lensed by Caplan was one of AFI’s submission to the 2008 Cannes Short Corner. Another 35mm short film, MY DEMON, won best Horror Short at the 2009 Cape Fear Film Festival in North Carolina. Recently a music video Caplan lensed, directed by Michelle Kantor, won best Music Video at the LA Femme Film Festival, 2014.