A Salute to Rising Stars

It’s that time again to salute those actresses who are on the move, actresses who deserve a little extra attention for their latest work, those actresses who are rising stars. Landing that crucial role in a TV movie or guest appearance in a successful show or film makes all the difference for aspiring actors.

Let’s take a look at the next group of actresses who viewers should keep their eyes on:

Amalia Williamson

Amalia is a twentysomething actress, writer and director who was born and raised in Ontario, Canada. In a recent YouTube video interview she shared that she was “the shyest girl in school.” In fact, she said “for a very long time (she) didn’t want to go to school,” but preferred to stay home with her parents instead.

Clearly that changed when she started her acting career by performing in a short film called Punctual Condolence in 2015. She made appearances in a few other short films over the next couple of years before she made her feature film debut in 2018 in the independent film Level 16. She starred in that movie alongside The Vampire Diaries alum Sara Canning and Sullivan’s Crossing recurring guest actor Peter Outerbridge [more on Sullivan’s Crossing further below] as well as Ginny & Georgia alum Katie Douglas.

That same year she appeared in a TV movie called Playing Dead where she starred alongside Leah Lewis (a prior “Rising Star”), who stars in the reboot of Matlock, and Tyler Ritter, son of the late John Ritter.

Her big break came in the form of the recurring role of Maddie West in the 2019 Canadian drama Northern Rescue where she starred as the daughter of the character played by William Baldwin and niece to the character played by Kathleen Robertson. The series was put on hiatus due to the COVID pandemic, and no official word was ever made about the show’s demise or its return either.

Over the next few years, she then appeared in the TV movies Glass Houses, Remember Me, Mommy?, The Kid Detective and A Christmas Letter as well as making guest appearances in TV shows like Private Eyes, Frankie Drake Mysteries, Children Ruin Everything and Letterkenny.

In 2023, she landed the recurring role of Lola Gunderson in the Canadian drama Sullivan’s Crossing that stars When Hope Calls star Morgan Kohan, Gilmore Girls alum Scott Patterson and One Tree Hill hunk Chad Michael Murray.

Sullivan’s Crossing will return for season 4 in Canada sometime in April or May of next year and then the show will make its season premiere sometime later in 2026 here in the United States on the CW before heading over to Netflix.

Amalia will next be seen as a series regular in the upcoming crime drama You’re Killing Me starring alongside Brooke Shields and The Flash alum Tom Cavanagh. The 6-episode series is set to debut on Acorn TV sometime in 2026, and will follow best-selling novelist, played by Shields, who forms an unlikely alliance with Andi, to be played by Amalia, an aspiring writer and podcaster, to find the killer of a close friend.

Amalia can be followed on Instagram here.

RELATED: A Salute to Rising Stars

Reina Hardesty

Reina is a twentysomething American actress who was born in Foothill Ranch in California.

When she was 13 years old, her father – a reporter for The Orange County Register, wrote a column about receiving a phone service statement with over 14,000 texts recorded in one month. Most of those texts came from his daughter Reina. TV and print outlets in the US and Europe jumped on that story, and her texting behavior, which included a segment airing on Inside Edition.

She initially explored cinematography, editing short films like Coming Out, before shifting over to acting in the mid-2010s where she appeared in several short films and some TV roles.

In 2016, she was cast in the Netflix original series Greenhouse Academy before taking on the recurring role of Stella Namura on the Crackle series StartUp, which included among its cast Adam Brody, Ron Perlman, Tony Plana, Edi Gathegi and Kelvin Harrison, Jr.

In 2018 and 2019, she gained a bit more attention by playing Joss Mardon, otherwise known as Weather Witch, in several episodes of The Flash, and even reprising that role in the sister series DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. She also made guest appearances in episodes of Timeless and All Rise, but it was her role in the IFC sitcom Brockmire that turned heads.

Her most recent role is that of Rebecca in the Netflix drama Butterfly, starring as the daughter of Lost alum Daniel Dae Kim.

Reina can be followed on Instagram here.