Cast Bios Lauren Holly
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CAST BIOS LAUREN HOLLY (Grace Carpenter) – Born in Bristol, Pennsylvania, the daughter of two college professors, Lauren Holly was raised in Geneva, New York. Her childhood was split between experiences of growing up in a rural town and the sophistication of her parents’ academic careers. She credits her love for acting to her great- grandmother, who bred a family tradition of “treading the boards” on the musical theatre stages of Liverpool and London. Holly spent time traveling in Europe and lived for a year in London, where she studied languages and flute at the famed Sarah Siddons School. At Sarah Lawrence College, she majored in English literature and economics, and intended to become a lawyer until the Elite Modeling Agency discovered her as a college freshman. By her sophomore year, her talent landed her a theatrical agent and a series of commercials. During her last year of school, Holly appeared in the Francis Ford Coppola-produced “Seven Minutes in Heaven” and, after graduating, starred in Michael Mann’s “Band of the Hand.” Holly’s breakthrough performance in film came in the box office smash “Dumb and Dumber.” Next, she received glowing reviews for her performance in the Edward Burns’ drama “No Looking Back.” Her other film credits include “Any Given Sunday,” “Sabrina,” “Turbulence,” “Beautiful Girls,” “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story,” “A Smile Like Yours,” “The Adventures of Ford Fairlane,” “Down Periscope,” “Entropy,” “The Last Producer,” “What Women Want,” “Colored Eggs” and “U-Boat.” She also lends her voice to the character of Chihiro’s mother in the animated motion picture “Spirited Away.” ® In addition to starring in the Emmy Award nominated TV dramas “Chicago Hope” and ® Emmy winning “Picket Fences,” Holly was seen in the television movie “King of Texas” and the miniseries “Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot.” Adding writer and producer to her resume, Holly and her father recently started a production company, Hollycould Productions, which is developing several projects. # # # (more) HALLMARK CHANNEL / “Just Desserts” Cast Bios – Page 2 COSTAS MANDYLOR (Marco Poloni) – Born in Melbourne, Australia to Greek parents, Costas Mandylor spent time in both countries growing up, becoming fluent in both Greek and English. At age 18, he moved to Greece to pursue a soccer career and, after a few seasons, moved back to Australia where he joined The Australian National League. After suffering a career-ending injury, Mandylor moved to America to pursue acting. His first role was the brother of a Greek-Jewish boxer (Willem Dafoe) imprisoned in Auschwitz in the true-life drama “Triumph of the Spirit.” Mandylor is best known for his role in the award-winning series "Picket Fences." His other television credits include starring roles in two other series, "Players" and “Secret Agent Man”, a recurring role in “Resurrection Blvd,” a guest starring stint in “Sex and the City,” the TV movies “Exiled” and “Sanctuary" and the miniseries “Bonanno: A Godfather’s Story.” Among his feature film credits are “Mobsters,” “Soap Dish,” “The Doors,” “The Game of Their Lives,” “The Pledge” and “Delta of Venus.” In People magazine’s feature, "Sexiest Men," Mandylor was listed as one of the Sexiest Men in the "Awesome Aussie" category. He was also chosen by the popular magazine as one of the “50 Most Beautiful People in the World.” Mandylor is a sports fanatic and enjoys playing soccer, volleyball, tennis and golf, along with boxing, weight training and karate. He also plays flamenco guitar and can dance a mean salsa as well as tango. # # # DAVID PROVAL (Uncle Fabrizio) – David Proval made his film debut in Martin Scorcese’s highly acclaimed “Mean Streets.” His other feature film credits include the Oscar ®-nominated “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Four Rooms,” “Innocent Blood,” “The Siege” and “Thirteen Moons.” Proval played a retarded man who believed he was Superman in “Nunzio,” for which he was nominated Best Actor at the Toronto Film Festival. An accomplished stage actor, Proval made his Broadway debut in “Requiem for a Heavyweight,” receiving a Drama Desk nomination for his performance. Other notable stage credits include The Long Wharf production of “A Normal Heart” and The Arena Stage production of David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross.” In Los Angeles, he created the role of Carmine in a staged reading of “Hell’s Kitchen Ablaze” in the New Works Festival at the Mark Taper Forum. He also completed a run in the world premiere of the one-man play, “Seltzer Man,” at the Tiffany Theater. (more) HALLMARK CHANNEL / “Just Desserts” Cast Bios – Page 3 Proval has also worked extensively on television, where he appeared as Richie Aprile on “The Sopranos,” Frank the Potato Man on “Picket Fences” and Rabbi Glassman on “The West Wing.” He is currently recurring as Signor Fogagnolo on “Everybody Loves Raymond.” # # # BRENDA VACCARO (Lina) – Born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in Texas, Brenda Vaccaro attended the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre and began her career on Broadway. She received the Theatre World Award for her role in “Everybody Loves Opal” and earned three Tony Award nominations for her work in “Cactus Flower,” “How Now, Dow Jones” and “The Goodbye People.” Other Broadway credits include “The Natural Look,” “Children from Their Games,” “Father’s Day,” “The Odd Couple” and “Jake’s Women.” Vaccaro made her feature film debut in the Academy Award ®-winning drama, “Midnight Cowboy.” She went on to star in such films as “I Love My Wife,” “Going Home” and “Summer Tree.” She was nominated for an Oscar and received the Golden Globe Award for her supporting role in Jacqueline Susann’s “Once Is Not Enough.” Her other film credits include “Airport 77,” “First Deadly Sin,” “Capricorn One,” “Zorro, the Gay Blade,” “Supergirl,” “Water,” “Cookie,” Heart of Midnight,” “Love Affair,” “The Mirror Has Two Faces” and “Sonny.” On television, Vaccaro earned Emmy ® nominations for her lead role in the series “Sara” and a guest-starring sting on “The Golden Girls.” She won the Emmy ® Award for her supporting role in the Comedy-Variety special “The Shape of Things.” Her other television credits include the movies “The Pride of Jesse Hallam,” “Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones” and “Deceptions,” as well as countless comedy and drama series. She also lends her voice to a number of animated characters including Mama on “Johnny Bravo” and Scruple on “The Smurfs.” # # # WOLFGANG PUCK (Himself) – Born in Austria, Wolfgang Puck began his formal training at age 14, inspired by his mother, Maria, a hotel chef. Encouraged by a friend, Puck left Europe in 1973 at the age of 24, having already learned his craft as a classically trained French chef in the master kitchens of three-star French restaurants – the Hotel de Paris in Monaco, Maxim's in Paris and L'Oustau de Baumaniére in Provence. His first stop in the United States was as chef at the restaurant La Tour in Indianapolis. Puck made the move to Los Angeles two years later, in 1975, and became both chef and part owner of Ma Maison, which quickly became a magnet for the rich and famous. (more) HALLMARK CHANNEL / “Just Desserts” Cast Bios – Page 4 After the 1981 publication of his first cookbook, Puck and partner Barbara Lazaroff decided to open their own restaurant together. Spago was an instant and earned many accolades. Over a span of 20 years, the couple created an empire of Wolfgang Puck dining establishments including 12 fine dining restaurants in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Chicago, Palo Alto and Maui and 56 casual dining and quick service restaurants in nationwide urban centers, airports and supermarkets. Puck expanded into retailing with the release of his first instructional video, more cookbooks, a successful line of frozen food, cookware and other cooking oriented consumer products. Seen regularly on “Good Morning America,” Puck also developed his own Emmy ® Award-winning television show, “Wolfgang Puck,” and, more recently, “Wolfgang Puck's Cooking Class.” His weekly syndicated newspaper column, “Wolfgang Puck's Kitchen,” is seen by more than 2.2 million readers. Puck and Lazaroff, who married in 1983, are actively involved in many philanthropic endeavors and charitable organizations, including their own Puck-Lazaroff Charitable Foundation, which has benefited Meals-on-Wheels and raised more than $10 million over the past 20 years. The award-winning couple lives in Beverly Hills and has two sons, Cameron and Byron. # # # MARY SUE MILLIKEN and SUSAN FENIGER (Themselves) – Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger are two of American's most beloved chefs. The duo have been business partners for more than 20 years, beginning with the opening of CITY in 1981, and are now the hands-on owner-operators of the popular and critically-acclaimed Border Grill restaurants in Santa Monica, Pasadena, and Las Vegas, as well as Ciudad in Downtown Los Angeles. Natural teachers, the partners are prolific in many media: authors of five cookbooks (four dedicated to the Latin kitchen); veterans of 396 episodes of the popular “Too Hot Tamales” and “Tamales World Tour” programs on Food Network; radio hosts of "Hot Dish" features heard daily on KFWB (980 AM in Southern California); and their foods "starred" in the Samuel Goldwyn film “Tortilla Soup.” The chefs have also created a line of prepared foods under their “Border Girls” brand at Whole Foods Markets, as well as a line of pepper mills. # # # ANDY LAUER (Jacques Du Jacques) – Andy Lauer, popular for his four-year run on the hit comedy series “Caroline in the City,” honed his comedic abilities with the improvisational group The Groundlings and the L.A. Connection. He was a series regular on “Going to Extremes,” “Grand” and “Gabby” and had recurring roles on “Matlock” and “thirtysomething.” For his portrayal of a tough but tender gang member on “21 Jump Street,” Lauer was nominated for an Emmy ® Award.