Now it’s time we get a closer look at some of the characters and crew of Halo: Nightfall. First up the cast.
Alexander Bhat
Alex trained at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and landed the role of Estrin in Halo: Nightfall before graduating this summer. This is his first professional acting role.
While at Guildhall, Alex’s performances included Konstantin in The Seagull (dir. Christian Burgess), Guiderius in Cymbeline (dir. Max Key), Pentheus in The Bacchai (dir. Patsy Rodenburg) and Nathan Detroit in Guys & Dolls (dir. Martin Connor). In October 2011 he performed in Northern Stage’s production of Hamlet in Vermont and in 2009 he performed with the Castle Theatre Company in a touring production of Twelfth Night around the UK and in the US.
Alexis Rodney
Alexis Rodney has recently filmed 24: Live Another Day (Fox). Other recent credits include feature film Guardians of the Galaxy (Marvel) with Chris Pratt and US pilot The Assets (ABC).
Other feature films include Kick Ass 2 (Universal), Wild Target (Miramax), Buffalo Soldiers (20th Century Fox), co-lead in Life & Lyrics (Universal), The Knot (Unstoppable Ents), Vendetta (Richwater Films) to name a few.
TV credits include All in the Game (C4), Judge John Deed (BBC), Murder City (Granada), Storm Damage (BBC) and Holby City (BBC).
Alexis also has a wealth of theatre credits which include Three Sisters (The National Theatre), The Shining (Royal Court), Every Coin and Joe Guy (Soho Theatre) and Natural Breaks & Rhythms (Nottingham Playhouse).
Christina Chong
Christina Chong is an English actress who is known for her role as Dr Sarah Witney, a cardiothoracic registrar, in the TV series Monroe.
Her television credits include 24: Live Another Day, Line of Duty and Monroe. She also played Lorna Bucket on Doctor Who.
Christina was born in Enfield, and her family later moved to Longridge, Lancashire. She started dancing at the age of four and studied at the Sutcliffe School of Dance. Aged 14, she gained a place at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts graduating five years later. Following an injury she turned to acting, training at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York.
Eric Kofi Abrefa
| Fury (Post production)Company messenger | 2014 |
| Law & Order: UK (TV Series)Kris Akron | 2014 |
| Stella (TV Series)Kyle | 2013 |
| Tati’s Hotel (TV Series)Strongman | 2011 |
| The Bill (TV Series)Benny Clayton | 2009 |
| If Not Now, When? (Short)Daniel | 2009 |
| Holby City (TV Series)Robbie Holland | 2008 |
| Tight Jeans (Short)Marcus | 2008 |
| Shoot the MessengerYannek | 2006 |
Jennie Gruner
Jennie Gruner trained at The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, London.
Her Film and Television credits include Wisner in Halo: Nightfall (Scott Free/343 Industries), the regular role of Maggie Bagwell in The Great Fire (ITV), Julia in Zero (Sterling Pictures, Exec Prod. Nicolas Roeg), Lisa in Act/Or (Filmstrip Studios) and Hayley in D:One (Desert Films).
Short films include Julia in 120 Days, Bella in Darling Bella and the lead in LSFF winner Come Clean.
Theatre credits include The Dead Dogs (The Print Room), A Tale of Two Cities (King’s Head), Terms & Conditions (Stepping Out Theatre), Above & Beyond (Look Left Look Right), Press Pass (Bush Theatre), London: Four Corners One Heart (Theatre 503), and Seduced (White Bear).
She was nominated as a Rising Star of 2013 by The London Magazine.
She is represented by Rob Sandy at Macfarlane Chard Associates.
Luke Neal
UK actor Luke Neal recently worked on the upcoming Wachowski project, JUPITER ASCENDING, starring opposite Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Eddie Redmayne and Sean Bean.
His previous film credits include The Borderlands, directed by Elliot Goldner and Wilderness, directed by Michael J Bassatt starring opposite Sean Pertwee and Toby Kebell.
He also starred in the recent TV mini series ‘The Politician’s Husband’ opposite David Tennant and Emily Watson and has featured on prestigious UK dramas on the small screen including, ‘Spooks’, ‘Starlings’, ‘Ashes to Ashes’, ‘Doc Martin’ and ‘Merlin’.
His stage credits include lead roles in Duchess of Malfi directed by Laurie Samson, Six Degrees of Separation at The London Old Vic and Michael Boyd’s acclaimed productions of The Histories Cycle at Royal Shakespeare Company.
Mike Colter
Mike Colter is a recognizable actor who has had memorable roles in some of television’s most critically acclaimed series and some of Hollywood’s most successful blockbuster films. His ambition to become an actor originated at a very young age after watching 1984’s Academy Award Nominated film, A Soldier’s Story. While in high school, Mike took his passion to the stage and began taking on challenging roles. His decision to pursue acting as professional career was solidified when Mike performed a speech as Malcom X in a two-man play called “The Meeting.” This performance made him realize the emotional impact art can have on an audience and he wanted to continue to bring life to complex characters.
While knowing that professional acting opportunities in South Carolina were scarce, Mike sought out to learn as much as he could about the craft. He enrolled at Benedict College, and studied theater and drama under the esteemed professor Scott Blanks. Mike soon transferred to the University of South Carolina where he attained a B.A. degree in theater, and went on to obtain an M.F.A. at the prestigious Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts under renowned acting teachers William Esper and Maggie Flanigan.
Upon graduating, Mike made the move to Los Angeles, where parts did not come easy. Hard work and perseverance paid off as he booked a co-star role on “Spin City” alongside Charlie Sheen. Soon afterward he was cast in Clint Eastwood’s 2005 Best Picture Academy Award Winning film Million Dollar Baby, opposite Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, and Hillary Swank. Since then, Mike has continued on to work in big blockbuster films like Salt alongside Angelina Jolie, and Men In Black III where he plays Colonel James Edward II, father to Will Smith’s Agent J. This role turned out to be a big revelation in the film, as it tied together the characters and the story lines for all three films. He recently wrapped filming the lead role of ‘Charlie Walker’ in America is Still the Place. Written and directed by Patrick Gilles (Olive), the film is based on the book, of the same name, by Charlie Walker. The film describes the true events that occurred in Walker’s life when he is hired by Tower Oil to clean up the oil left on Stinson Beach after a tanker collision near Golden Gate Bridge and the racial animosity this caused during the 1970’s.
In addition to his film work, Mike has had a hot streak in television as a recurring guest star in CBS’s critically acclaimed drama, “The Good Wife;” where he plays the powerful Lemond Bishop. His return to the series caused quite a stir in the lives of Alicia Florrick and Will Gardner. In addition, he had character arc in the EMMY and Golden Globe Nominated mini-series “American Horror Story: Coven;” where he played an executive of a powerful company and head witch hunter alongside Jessica Lange and Angela Basset. Mike is also known for his recurring role on “The Following” alongside Kevin Bacon and his series regular turn in the short lived “Ringer” with Sarah Michelle Gellar.
On the stage, Mike starred in Adam Bock’s play “Drunken City” that had a world premiered at the Playwrights Horizon. He has also received exceptional reviews for his turn as CJ Memphis, a guitar-playing blues singer in the 2005 revival of the Pulitzer Prize winning “A Soldier’s Play” the original stage adaptation of Mike’s career inspiration A Soldier’s Story. The play was a big off-Broadway success and really brought Mike’s acting career full circle.
Mike currently resides in Los Angeles.
Sarah Armstrong
Before starting filming on Halo: Nightfall, Sarah starred in David Marconi’s (Enemy of the State, Die Hard IV) feature film Squat, and black comedy The Milky Way, both due for release in 2014.
This was followed by a West End run of Keeler, where Sarah starred as Christine Keeler alongside Paul Nicholas.
Sarah is currently filming a lead in the film Fallen Eagle: Broken Wings, a Roman Epic directed by Ilyas Kaduji.
| Fallen Eagle: Broken Wings (Filming)Sabina | 2014 |
| Keeler Christine Keeler | 2014 |
| SquatErika | 2014 |
| The Milky WayHayley | 2014 |
| Drunk on LoveJennifer | 2014 |
| Locked Up AboardAmanda Lindhout | 2012 |
| The LighterLorena / Maria | 2011 |
Shaun Blaney
Shaun Blaney is an actor from Northern Ireland, known for Made in Belfast (2013) Waiting Game (2014) and Empire State (2013)
Television credits include Game of Thrones, Dani’s Castle and Bredan Smyth: Betrayal of Trust.
Theatre credits include Cooking with Elvis (2012), Inventors (2013) and Much ado about Nothing (2013)
Practiced in voice over for radio with six years’ professional experience. Shaun has a classical musical upbringing, notably cello and guitar but interests in rock and blues. Also plays bass guitar and ukulele.
STEVE WADDINGTON
Forthcoming features include: The Imitation Game (dir. Morten Tyldum); A Little Chaos (dir. Alan Rickman) and Suburbs (dir. Jeppe Ronde).
Other Film credits include: One Night In Istanbul (dir. James Marquand); The Sweeney (dir. Nick Love); Largo Winch (dir. Jerome Salle); Arn (dir. Peter Flinth); Breakfast on Pluto (dir. Neil Jordan); The Parole Officer (dir. John Duigan); Sleepy Hollow (dir.Tim Burton); The Hole (dir. Nick Hamm); Face (dir. Antonia Bird); Carrington (dir. Christopher Hampton); Last of the Mohicans (dir. Michael Mann) and Edward II (dir. Derek Jarman)
His television work includes: Titanic (Nigel Stafford-Cark); A Warriors Tale (American World Pictures); Garrow’s Law (Twenty Twenty Television); Robin Hood (Tiger Aspect); The Tudors (Showtime); Warriors: Richard the Lionheart (BBC); The Curse of King Tut’s Tomb (Larry Levinson Productions); Boudica: Warrior Queen (Box TV) and Ivanhoe (BBC).
His theatre work includes: Barbarians, Pericles, Coriolanus and All’s Well That Ends Well (all for the RSC), and 900 Oneonta (Ambassadors).
And now some of the crew.
David Zucker
David W. Zucker is President of Television for Scott Free, and Executive Producer of the Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated, Peabody-acclaimed drama, The Good Wife, now in its sixth year, as well as the crime series, Numb3rs, which ran for six successful seasons on CBS. Current productions in 2014 include the futuristic AMC pilot, Galyntine from Jason Cahill (The Sopranos) and Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead), a digital series set within the HALO universe for XBox/Microsoft, the epic Killing Jesus, adapted from the Bill O’Reilly book by Walon Green (Law & Order) for National Geographic channel, and a drama pilot for Amazon, the details for which will be announced shortly.
During his tenure, Scott Free has produced a steady stream of acclaimed programs including Discovery’s first-ever scripted event series, Klondike, with Tim Roth, Sam Shepard, Richard Madden and Abbie Cornish headlining, STARZ’s eight-hour limited series, Ken Follett’s The Pillars of Earth, an Emmy and Golden Globe nominee, starring Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell and Donald Sutherland; and the subsequent World Without End, featuring Cynthia Nixon and Ben Chaplin for Reelz; HBO’s Into the Storm, an Emmy nominee and sequel to the Emmy-winning telefilm, The Gathering Storm; for A&E, the Emmy-nominated mini-series, Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain, starring Benjamin Bratt; and Robin Cook’s medical thriller, Coma, featuring Geena Davis, James Woods Richard Dreyfus and Ellen Burstyn. TNT’s epic six-hour spy thriller, The Company, was a Golden Globe nominee, with Michael Keaton and Alfred Molina, based on the novel by Robert Littell.
In the non-fiction arena, two landmark broadcasts in 2013, adaptations of Bill O’Reilly’s books Killing Kennedy, now Emmy nominated, and Killing Lincoln both delivered record ratings for National Geographic channel, while the documentary series, Crimes of the Century was featured on CNN. Also notable, the Emmy-winning documentary special, Gettysburg, produced for the History Channel.
Prior to joining Scott Free, Zucker worked as a Story Editor on the CBS series, Judging Amy, and wrote pilot scripts for CBS and ABC, as well as various stage plays. Zucker also served as Vice President of Drama Series for CBS, and Vice President of Drama Series & Current Programs at Warner Bros. TV, overseeing such shows as E.R. and Murphy Brown.
Sergio Mimica-Gezzan
Sergio is a very accomplished TV director whose credits include the DreamWorks miniseries TAKEN and INTO THE WEST, BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA, PRISON BREAK, HEROES, SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES and the Scott Free miniseries PILLARS OF THE EARTH. Prior to that, he was Stephen Spielberg’s AD for 11 years and worked on SCHINDLER’S LIST, AMISTAD, THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, MINORITY REPORT, THE TERMINAL, and CATCH ME IF YOU CAN. He also AD’d INDEPENDENCE DAY. He has massive fans in on the film side that include Spielberg, Ridley & Tony Scott, and Kathy Kennedy.
HFFL: Needless to say, I think this production is in pretty good hands. I’m even MORE excited for this show! How about YOU?!?