Salute to Rising Stars

Working in the entertainment industry is highly competitive, and breaking through isn’t always that easy. But landing that crucial role in a TV movie or guest appearance in a successful show or film makes all the difference.

As a way to salute rising stars on the big and/or small screen, I wanted to create a new column focusing on actresses who are on the move, actresses who deserving a little extra attention for the latest work.

Lola Flanery

Lola is a young actress who got her start in the 2015 Lifetime holiday movie Last Chance for Christmas where she starred alongside Hilarie Burton (One Tree Hill and White Collar), Gabriel Hogan (Heartland) and Tim Matheson (Hart of Dixie).

Just within this year she has appeared as the daughter of Caroline Dhavernas in the series Mary Kills People; has played the doomed Lila DeWitt in the Spike TV series The Mist [based on the novella by Stephen King] and appeared as the young version of the Seelie Queen in the Freeform fantasy series Shadowhunters.

In a few weeks, Lola will be seen in the box office film Home Again, playing the daughter of Reese Witherspoon and Michael Sheen; and next year she will be taking over the role of Madi, the “adopted” daughter of Clarke Griffin (series lead Eliza Taylor) in the fifth season of The CW post-apocalyptic series The 100.

Meghann Fahy

She got her start in the soap opera One Life to Live in 2010 and then starred in the moving 2011 CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame movie The Lost Valentine [playing the young version of Betty White’s character].

After she appeared in episodes of The Good Wife, Necessary Roughness, the mini-series Political Animals, Chicago Fire, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Blue Bloods.

Last year, she appeared in the box office movie Miss Sloane that starred Jessica Chastain; and this year is one of the three main stars of the much-buzzed about Freeform series The Bold Type.

Here is to Lola and Meghann as rising stars!

Please be on the look-out for more salutes to rising stars in the future.