'A Family Thanksgiving' Production Bios Lynne
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‘A FAMILY THANKSGIVING’ PRODUCTION BIOS LYNNE BESPFLUG (Executive Producer) - Lynne Bespflug began her career in the film industry in 1975 and has worked in a number of production-related positions. Bespflug’s experience is diverse – from documentaries to Academy Award winning feature films. She has shot movies in Los Angeles, Australia and throughout Canada. Over the past twenty-five years, Bespflugs’ credits have included made for television movies such as “Return to Halloweentown,” starring Debbie Reynolds, “You Know My Name,” starring Sam Elliott and the original “Amy Fisher Story” starring Drew Barrymore. Her feature credits include “Unforgiven,” starring Clint Eastwood and “The Edge,” starring Sir Anthony Hopkins. Bespflug’s most recent producer credits are the “The Survivors Club,” “For All Time,” “To Brave Alaska,” “Beauty’s Revenge” and “The Client List,” starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. Bespflug lives in Vancouver, Canada with her husband and two children. # # # DAPHNE ZUNIGA (Executive Producer) – From the first moment Daphne Zuniga stepped onto the stage in junior high as The Admiral in the musical, HMS Pinafore at age twelve, she knew she’d found her calling. Zuniga began her film career with Rob Reiner’s “The Sure Thing” opposite John Cusack and Tim Robbins. Then, a childhood dream came true when she was cast opposite Lucille Ball in Ball’s final performance, “Stone Pillow.” Zuniga went on to star in several feature films, including Mel Brooks’ “Spaceballs,” “Vision Quest,” “Gross Anatomy” with Christine Lahti and Matthew Modine and “Staying Together” with Stockard Channing, directed by Lee Grant. Other films include “Last Rights,” “Stand-ins” and the Hallmark Channel Original Movie, “Mail Order Bride.” Zuniga became familiar to millions of viewers when she appeared for four years as Jo Reynolds on the hit series “Melrose Place,” and then reprised her role in 2009 for the CW’s re-make series. Other early television credits include two highly rated NBC miniseries, “Pandora’s Clock” and “Degree of Guilt,” both based on best-selling novels, and guest spots on “Spin City,” “Stark Raving Mad,” “Eve” and “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.” After playing the sexy centerfold Shelly Pierce on the acclaimed NBC series “American Dreams,” Zuniga went on to star on the ABC Family series “Beautiful People,” and then alongside Jay Mohr in the ABC Family film, “Christmas Do-Over.” After a notable guest starring role in the 7th season premiere of “Nip/Tuck” as Carly, Zuniga landed her recurring role as Victoria Davis on the CW’s “One Tree Hill,” for which she is now in her fourth season. (more) HALLMARK CHANNEL / ‘A FAMILY THANKSGIVING’ – Production Bios – Page 2 Zuniga's long time efforts on behalf of the environment led to her recent appointment as founding board member of the LA River Revitalization Corporation. She produced a short film showing the negative health impacts on the mostly Hispanic communities in Southern Los Angeles, and has written articles for O, The Oprah Magazine and The Huffington Post. Zuniga is also a supporter of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Communities for a Better Environment, Waterkeeper Alliance, and was recently honored with the Golden Sun Award at the Barcelona Environmental Film Festival. ### MICHAEL R. GOLDSTEIN AND MICHAEL G. LARKIN (Executive Producers) - Michael R. Goldstein and Michael G. Larkin are independent television and film producers with over 100 hours of scripted and non-scripted programming to their credit which includes; “Red Water” for TBS, “44 Minutes” for FX, “Behind The Camera: The Story of Charlie’s Angels” for NBC, and the Emmy-nominated “Four Minutes” for ESPN. In 2006 they formed Larkin-Goldstein Productions (LGP) and they are currently producing “Scoundrels,” the ABC series written by Richard Levine and Lyn Greene and based on a top- rated format from New Zealand which they brought to the United States. In addition, LGP also has more than a dozen other projects in development including “The Pawn,” a one-hour drama based on the bestselling books by Steven James. The project is in development with ABC Studios and will be written by Charles Murray. LGP have also recently acquired the format rights to the popular Canadian comedy series, “Hatching, Matching & Dispatching.” LGP continues to maintain a strong presence in television mini-series and movies with projects including the recently completed super natural thriller, “Secrets in the Walls,” which airs on the Lifetime Movie Network in 2010. On the feature side, LGP is remaking the cult-horror classic, “Motel Hell” for MGM, and developing the Christmas comedy, “Rein-Men,” in association with Storefront Pictures. # # # NEILL FEARNLEY (Director) - A native of Liverpool, England, Neill Fearnley has more than 40 directorial credits over the course of a career which has spanned more than 20 years. He has directed episodes of such television shows as “21 Jump Street,” “Earth: Final Conflict,” “Kung Fu: The Legend Continues,” “The Outer Limits,” “Witchblade,” “Jeremiah” and SciFi’s 2007 update of “Flash Gordon.” He has also directed several TV movies, including “A Decent Proposal,” “Christmas in Boston,” (more) HALLMARK CHANNEL / ‘A FAMILY THANKSGIVING’ – Production Bios – Page 3 “I Dream of Murder” and “The Bad Son.” Recently, he directed the TV movie “Encounter With Danger,” starring Shannen Doherty. In 2008, he directed the Hallmark Channel Original Movie, “Daniel’s Daughter” and the TV movie “The Boy Next Door,” both of which also showcased Fearnley in supporting roles. Fearnley then went on to direct and associate produce the 2009 Hallmark Channel Original Movie, “Christmas in Canaan,” based on the book Christmas in Canaan by Kenny Rogers and Donald Davenport. ### EMILY BAER (Writer) – Emily Baer was a New York based playwright and theatre director staging original productions off Broadway before she wrote and directed the feature "Four and a Half Women" which aired on Showtime. Additionally she directed, "The Guys Guide to Marrying Money." She has set up and written original screenplays for several studios; her credits include, "The Flip Side" for Paramount, "Here Comes the Bride" for Disney and "Bridenapped" for Oxygen. She currently has several projects in development at studios around town. -- HALLMARK CHANNEL -- .