‘CHRISTMAS TREE LANE’ Cast Bios
ALICIA WITT (Meg) – Last year Alicia Witt joined Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black” for its seventh and final season as Zelda. Witt also recently wrapped production on the feature film I Care a Lot, opposite Rosamund Pike and Peter Dinklage. “Christmas Tree Lane” is Witt’s eighth annual holiday film for the Hallmark family, starting with “A Very Merry Mix-Up” in 2013 for Hallmark Channel.
Witt received rave reviews for her role as Paula on Season Six of AMC’s hit series “The Walking Dead.” Other recent television roles include ABC’s “Nashville,” as country music star Autumn Chase; Fox TV’s “The Exorcist,” the horror anthology “Lore” on Amazon; cult-favorite “Supernatural” on The CW and returning to David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” on Showtime for which she reprised her role from the original series. In 2014, Witt joined the cast of the Emmy award- winning FX series “Justified” as Wendy Crowe, the smart and sexy paralegal sister of crime lord Danny Crowe.
A classically trained pianist and a singer-songwriter, Witt released her newest album, 15,000 Days, with Grammy Award-winning producer Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Norah Jones, Ingrid Michaelson, Tom Waits, James Bay). She released her first full-length studio album, Revisionary History, in 2015. She has opened for Ben Folds Five, Jimmy Webb, and John Fullbright. She completed a 19-city U.S. tour last year and has played all over the world, including at the Grand Ole Opry in her hometown of Nashville. Her music can be found at www.aliciawittmusic.com.
Starting with her film debut in 1984, at the age of seven as Alia in David Lynch’s science fiction classic Dune, Witt’s many film credits include 88 Minutes with Al Pacino, Warner Bros.’ hit Two Weeks’ Notice opposite Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant, Last Holiday with Queen Latifah, Urban Legend, The Upside of Anger, Mr. Holland’s Opus, Four Rooms, Fun and Vanilla Sky, directed by Cameron Crowe. She received the Special Jury Recognition Award for Acting at the Sundance Film Festival for Fun, in addition to being nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in the category of Best Debut Performance. She also won Best Actress at the US Comedy Arts Festival for Playing Mona Lisa.
Other significant roles that fans may recognize Witt from include Showtime’s “House of Lies,” NBC’s Emmy Award winning “Friday Night Lights,” CBS’s “The Mentalist” and NBC’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” alongside Chris Noth. She spent four years on the CBS hit show “Cybill,” and has also appeared on the HBO series “The Sopranos,” CBS’s “Two and a Half Men” and Fox’s “Ally McBeal.”
On stage, Witt starred in Neil LaBute’s Tony nominated play Reasons to Be Pretty at the Geffen Playhouse. She also appeared at London’s Royal Court Theatre in Terry Johnson’s Piano/Forte and made her West End debut with Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things. She has also performed at Williamstown Theatre Festival and is a regular participant in the 24-Hour Plays on Broadway and the 24-Hour Musicals off-Broadway.
Witt can add author to her resume with Small Changes, whose rights were recently acquired by Harper Horizon. The book, out in Fall 2021, is an inspiring, welcoming and simple yet effective guide to health, happiness and sustainable living. Instead of promoting a rigid diet, Small Changes will instead offer readers a stress-and-judgment-free approach for enacting easy, incremental changes across all areas of life.
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ANDREW WALKER (Nate Williams) – Andrew Walker was a lead on the Lifetime series “Against the Wall” and has guest-starred on hit TV shows, including “ER,” “CSI: Miami,” “CSI: New York,” “Without a Trace,” “The Big Bang Theory” and the Hallmark Channel original series “When Calls the Heart.” Walker starred alongside Jodie Sweetin in “Merry & Bright,” which premiered last year during Hallmark Channel’s “Countdown to Christmas” as well as opposite Ashley Greene in “Christmas on My Mind,” which premiered on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries last year during the network’s annual “Miracles of Christmas” programming event.
Walker won the Borsos Award at the Whistler Film Festival for his performance in the feature film Steel Toes alongside Academy Award® nominee David Strathairn. More recent feature film credits include God Bless the Broken Road, Loaded and Penthouse North, opposite Michelle Monaghan and Michael Keaton. Walker also starred in several recent Hallmark Channel original movies, including “The Perfect Catch,” “Love on Ice,” “A Dream of Christmas,” “Love Struck Café” and “Bottled with Love.”
Walker can next be seen starring in the science fiction feature Oxalis, which he also produced.
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DRAKE HOGESTYN (Benjamin Reilly) – Drake Hogestyn is best known to viewers for his role as John Black in the long-running daytime drama, “Days of Our Lives.” Hailing from Fort Wayne, Indiana, Hogestyn graduated from the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he attended on a baseball scholarship. He was drafted by the New York Yankees and played third base for their farm team until he was sidelined by an injury in 1978.
His first television role was as Brian McFadden in the series “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” based on the feature film of the same name. Additional television appearances include the TV movie “Beverly Hills Cowgirl Blues” starring Lisa Hartman and James Brolin, “Criminal Minds” and two primetime installments of “Days of Our Lives” – “One Stormy Night” and “Night Sins.”
Hogestyn and his wife Victoria have a son and three daughters.
# # # BRIANA PRICE (Emma) – Briana Price was born and raised in Pasadena, California. She studied at Columbia University in of New York City, where she was preparing to be a doctor. However, her love for the arts took over and steered her in the direction of acting and dance. Price has toured with Nicki Minaj, performed on “13 Reasons Why,” “Shameless,” “The Prom,” “Glee” and “The Neighbors.” Stage credits include Tempest Redux as Ariel, All My Distances are Far as Ruby, Lysistrata Unbound as a female chorus member and she starred in Center Theatre Group’s remount of For the Love Of (or The Roller Derby Play) as Joy Ride. Price also wrote, directed, produced and starred in the web series entitled “Sunday.” She has trained at Berg Studios, Graham Sheils Studios, The Groundlings, and is a member of the actor-run non-profit The Collaborative.
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