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Colin Ferguson
Oscar
A TV heartthrob for teenage girls in his native Canada, Colin has compiled quite a resume in Hollywood too. His film credits include starring roles in Rowing Through and The Opposite of Sex with Christina Ricci. He also led Showtime's More Tales Of The City.
Colin's TV credits include a lead role in ABC's Then Came You, a primetime series which is premiering this fall on Thursday nights. He was also in the movie-of-the-week, A Prayer in the Dark, pilots The Family Business and Texas Graces, and the series Are You Afraid of the Dark and Cover Me.
Colin's also had a prolific stage career, playing the lead in everything from Julius Caesar to City of Men Pissing to One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. He was a founding member of Second City, Detroit comedy troup. A graduate of McGill University, he now lives in Los Angeles. Colin is a health freak and eats spinach three times a day, a habit that would make Popeye proud.
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Amber O'Shea
Penny
This Napa Valley bombshell broke into the film business by starring in Intimate Power, with F. Murray Abraham. She plays the lead in Margeurite's Solution and has the audience braying with laughter in the short film The Casting Ouch .
You may have seen Amber play the recurring character of Sherry on Don Johnson's Nash Bridge. She is Ellen in Jan Egglesten's Gang of Four. On the stage, Amber's resume includes principle roles in Spoon River Anthology and Bus Stop. She studies with Cassandra Chamberlain.
Amber lives in Napa Valley with her daughter Miranda and two very frisky dogs. She's a watercolor artist, horseback rider, and Yoga freak. The picture to the left proves conclusively that Amber has an 'innie' belly button.
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Dianne Luby
Julie
Working seven days a week, 20-hours a day, Dianne recently wrapped simultaneous shooting on two films: The Surprise Party and The Harvesters. She recently started a third, How Its Done. You can also see her in these other films: Melissa, Pinewood and Stitches.
Dianne's TV career includes stints on virtually every major soap: All My Children, Another World, and As The World Turns. Her theater credits include I Want I Want I Want (w/ Judd Hirsch & Viveca Lindfors), One the Road, Out of Gas on Lovers Leap, and Staged Reading. She is currently playing the role of Mia in DIA, a one act traveling show.
Dianne wrote the book Words of Women (Samuel French booksellers), which she adapted to the theatre and in which she starred. She leads the drama department for Youth Speaks, a non-profit program for S.F. teenagers. Finally, she gets to fondle the Pillsbury Dough Boy in an upcoming commercial. Dianne plans to catch up on her sleep sometime during the year 2002.
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Joe Mazza
Jack Gribble
Joe's a lifer, working in this business long enough to actually guest star on the classic TV series Eight Is Enough. More recently, and perhaps more inpressively, Joe was in Ron Howard's EdTV and Two Goldstein's On Acid opposite Elliot Gould and Harvey Fierstein. He also played in The Q Factor and Sincerely Yours.
Joe's TV credits include General Hospital, Loose Ends, WCTV Comedy and Rumors. His theater experience is expansive, encompassing Human Animals, Boys Life, Film at Eleven, Hold Me, Beyond Therapy, Twisted, The Wager, Key Exchange, Quantum Leap, The Position, and Que.
Joe enjoys rock climbing, sky diving, and harmonica. He does his own stunts, has a library of dialects, and teaches acting to young people as part of a program run by Beau Bonneau casting in San Francisco. What to know more? check out his website.
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Tyler Janisch
Bill Tarado
Born and raised in Nebraska, Tyler has been acting for over 20 years on the stage. Tyler’s acting bug was firmly planted in third grade, when he played the cunning lawyer Jerry Jason in The Defense of Mr. Tooth. Critics raved (well, his parents raved). As an adult, and in a more professional setting, Tyler has played roles in Avatar, The Rainmaker, The Rover, Stage Door and Rehearsal for Murder.
For two years Tyler hosted, edited and ran camera for a local television arts program in Denver, Colorado. Tyler still pursues an acting career while passing himself off as a Network/Systems Administrator and Technical Trainer. He trains Silicon Valley professionals computer programming. The Surprise Party marks Tyler’s feature film debut. Tyler lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his fiance, drive-in entrepreneur Jennifer Sherer, and their seven computers.
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Janice Fuller
Ed the Waitress
Janice's first feature film role was in The Goodbye Girl. It was a role so shocking that they were forced to cut it (hint: she wore giant, prosthetic rubber breasts). She did make it past the censor on CBS-TV's Poisoned by Love with Harry Hamlin, and Necessity with Loni Anderson. She also had a recurring role as Bertha on NBC's Midnight Caller.
Janice's decades long theater career includes stops in New York, Washington DC, Seattle, St. Louis, and more. A founding member of the Lion Theatre Company in New York, she has appeared in numerous shows. Here are a few: I Can't Keep Running in Place, Marching to Georgia, Grand Magic, In the Summerhouse, K - The Trial, Music Hall Sidelights (w/ Kathy Bates), Bus Stop, Pup, Bird in the Hand, So Early in the Morning, and A Christmas Carrol. Janice also performed Shakespeare at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego.
Janice lives in Pittsburgh--Pittsburgh, California that is. A legal secretary, this Grande Dame of our production never lets herself go too long without performing.
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Bob Scott
Oscar's Father
Jack of all trades Bob Scott was most recently in the Michael Douglas feature film, The Game. His TV movie credits include Dalva, The Man Next Door, and Long Road Home. He was also in Unsolved Mysteries, L.A. Law, The Utilizer, Midnight Caller, Jesse Hawkes and Nash Bridges.
Bob's long theater career includes parts in Becket, Goodnight Texas, After the Fall, The Bear, Bus Stop, Threepenny Opera, William Had The Words, and numerous Shakespeare plays.
Bob's skills include Organic Gardening, Weight Training, Ocean Sailing, Skiing, Golf and Horses. He has also been a Cow Milker, Stucco Mason, Tile Setter and a Dredgeman. Twenty points to anyone who can tell us what the heck a dredgeman does.
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Adele Uddo
Copper/Dahlia the Stripper
Adele wrote, produced, directed and starred in her short film, Ying Yang, which premiered at Slamdance. She has played in Nail in My Coffin and Hollywood Hills. She also checked Don Johnson's pulse as Dr. Barbara Jones on the CBS series Nash Bridges.
Adele's theater exploits include lead roles in A Comedy of Errors, Evita, A Chorus Line, Twelfth Night, The Memorandum, Cabaret, The Sound of Music, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and Grease.
Adele is currently pursuing her acting career in Los Angeles. She is also working on an amazing one-woman show which we will all see very soon!
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Seymour Horowitz
Al the Cook
An author and lecturer in Economics and Statistics, Seymour's passion is acting. Seymour's recently appeared in the feature film, The Net. He has also acted in TV shows like Countdown-Looking Glass, Unsolved Mysteries, Statue of Liberty, and Hawk.
Since 1959, Seymour has strutted the stage, appearing in Cantorial, Picasso at Lapine Agile, Cemetery Club, As You Like It, Plaza Suite, Golden Fleecing, Children of Darkness, Arsenic & Old Lace, The Visit, Vatzlav, Guys & Dolls, Zorba the Greek, Paint Your Wagon Gypsy, Three Penny Opera, and Oklahoma.
Seymour character is Janice Fuller's husband in our film. This is apropos, because they have been acting together for thirty years!
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Doug Sept
Don Bitterman
The runner-up in the role to play Oscar, Doug was a sensation on the set. He managed to steal the show in the role of Don Bitterman, the drunk 30-something in a failed marriage.
Doug has played in a number of films, including Close Encounters, Ashes to Ashes, Love Wendy, Save Me, 3 Days, 3 Hours, 3 Minutes, 3 Seconds, Cypher, and more. He has also starred in a number of theatre productions.
Don lives in Los Angeles and is pursuing a job as a waiter, um... bartender, er... actor. He heard there was a shortage of thespians. He was misinformed.
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Garrett Rice
Writer/Producer/Director
Garrett Rice has worked for the last nine years in the high tech industry. He has been a product manager, a sales manager, and marketing manager for Avalanche Development Company, Alembic Systems, and OpenSource Inc. (he co-founded OpenSource). Most recently, he was NeXT Software Inc.'s Channels Manager and his efforts helped lead to that company's buy-out by Apple Computer Inc. He departed Apple last year to shoot his first feature film, The Surprise Party.
Garrett has taught wilderness survival and mountaineering at Skinner Brother's Wilderness Schools in Wyoming. He has climbed extensively in the U.S. and South America. He was an alternate on the 1988 "Cowboy's on Everest" Expedition.
34 years old, he lives in Redwood City, California. He holds a bachelor's degree in English Fiction Writing from Duke University and an MBA from the University of Colorado.
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- Joplin Wu
Director of Photography
An artist with particularly strong and skillful lighting technique, Joplin has earned a reputation as the great force behind a director's vision. He recently shot Red, White and Blues a film which Movie Maker Magazine says "stands out from the usual indie with exceedingly strong cinematography."
Joplin also shot Nothing Sacred (renamed The Idea Of Sex) which was featured at the Seattle International, San Jose, Boston and Montreal World Film Festivals. Other Wu films have earned raves at numerous prestigious festivals including the Rotterdam International, San Francisco International, and the Mill Valley Film Festivals.
Joplin Wu has photographed numerous music videos, shorts, and feature films including I want to blow up Silicon Valley, Desire, Suitecase and Open Return. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with distinction from the California College of Arts and Crafts. Also, Joplin wears funny hats.
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Patrick Murphy
Editor/Script Supervisor
A Salem Massachusettes native, Patrick Murphy is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire in English. He studied Editing at the prestigious School of Filmmaking at The North Carolina School of the Arts.
Working in New York and Philadelphia, Patrick edited for the Tribecca Film Institute (The Russian Room) and for the Discovery Channel (Travelers). He also edited numerous television commercials (AT&T, Philidelphia Dept. of Tourism, Pennsylvania Lottery) and Eyes of the Storm, a feature documentary on the hand-over of Hong Kong to the Chinese.
Recently, Patrick moved to Hollywood to seek his fame and fortune. He edits for Warner Brothers and ABC television (Eye on L.A., Vista L.A.). He also slept on the director's floor for 4 weeks to serve as both the Editor and the Script Supervisor (Script Bitch) on The Surprise Party. He is convinced that the airlines misplaced his social life on the move, so if anyone has seen it please contact him immediatly.
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Ryan Laubscher
Composer
Only slightly less productive than Mozart, this Englishman won TV, Newspaper and Radio acclaim for composing and orchestrating three full-scale operas in under two years at the age of nineteen.
Later trained in Composition and Orchestration under renowned composer Patric Standford, Ryan graduated from the Royal College of Music. Ryan currently heads RJL Studios in London.
Ryan has scored nine feature films including The Surprise Party, Lillie & Lizzie, Fighting Eddie, and Utilities.
He has provided music for Levis, Snap.com, Advent magazine, and Apple Computer. Ryan has also produced such London pop bands Candy Club, Jolene Sharp, and Sense.
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Beau Bonneau
Casting Director (web link)
Beau Bonneau has been a Casting Director since 1993. He has cast for numerous feature films, including: Phenomenon, The Rock, Desperate Measures, Flubber and the Robin William's vehicle Patch Adams.
He has cast for most major studios including: Hollywood Pictures, Disney Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Rysher Entertainment, Touchstone Pictures and Universal. Beau has also cast for Don Johnson's series Nash Bridges and for several hundred national television commercials including Macdonald's, Nike, Kodak, AT&T, Maxwell House, and Lexus.
Beau owned and ran his own commercial photography studio in the Bay Area for twelve years before becoming a casting director. Of course, Beau is now the undisputed overlord of casting in the Bay Area. The world is not enough.
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Caitlin Maynard
Line Producer/Co-Producer
Caitlin has written, produced, directed, numerous films, documentaries, and shorts. Among her credits are Hank & Henk (Opening Film - Utrecht's Film Festival), Lola da Musica (Winner: 1996 Belgian Journalistic Prize), Fairy Tales, Eric in the Land of Insects, and Hello Mr. Koekepeer (Winner: Prix Danube 1993, CINEKIDS popular prize 1993, 1994). She is the co-founder of North Beach Films in San Francisco.
Caitlin has lived for several years in Europe, working there as a director and producer. She is a graduate of Portland Sate University and The Sanbergen Institute of Broadcasting and Film.
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Karen Logsdon
Consulting Publicist
Karen is a communications consultant who specializes in defining corporate public relations and marcom strategies. As a consulting publicist to Expedition Films, Karen is working with our team to develop Expedition Film's press releases and company background materials. She will also help us to create a "buzz" on behalf of The Surprise Party, as we seek to position the film for success. Once the film is produced, Karen will assist Expedition Films with public relations activities surrounding Film Festivals and Film Markets.
Karen holds a B.A. in American Studies from the University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, Ind.) and an M.A. in Writing from DePaul University (Chicago, Ill.). She is also a freelance writer. She has written two novels, two children's books and one nonfiction work.
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John Landwehr
Marketing and Business Development Consultant
John provides business and marketing consulting to Expedition Films. John assist Expedition Films in fund raising activities, corporate product placement in our films, and provides strategic and tactical assistance with the marketing of The Surprise Party via traditional and electronic promotional mediums.
He holds a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University. For the past five years, John has provided marketing and business development assistance to various companies in the Silicon Valley. When he's not working, you're likely to find John sailing or snowboarding, depending on the season.
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Frank Simeone
Production Consultant
Frank is well known in San Francisco for his motion picture production skills; he has over thirty films to his credit. He began his career as a production assistant on Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. While at Coppola's company, American Zoetrope, Frank also worked on The Black Stallion, Hammett, Rumble Fish, and One From The Heart. In 1986 he worked as the production manager on LucasFilms' TV project, The Battle For Endor.
Frank's production experience at Zoetrope and LucasFilms enables him to help independent filmmakers get their low-budget features "in the can". His independent film credits include: The Method, Louie Bluie, Nina Takes A Lover and the recent film festival hit, Dream With The Fishes. Frank most recently produced the documentary film Mystery Of The Last Tsar (Discovery Channel) and the soon to be released feature Dumbarton Bridge.
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Abby
Morale Officer
A graduate of Acme Obedience School, Abby has provided unending enthusiasm and support to the Expedition Films team. Known for working like a dog on her projects, she has loyally fetched, sat, rolled over, and played "pick-a-paw" in trade only for room and board.
Though Abby is not featured in The Surprise Party, she looks forward to making her acting debut soon. Shown here wearing a surprise party hat (she loves costumes), Abby also barks on demand.
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The Cast and Crew
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