CooperTalk

Steve Cooper talks with actor Jack McGee. Jack has been very the last two years starring in NBC's The McCarthy's and USA's Benched and Common Law. Born and raised in the South Bronx, he is the youngest of eight children. Admittedly, this may have been his impetus to strive to get noticed – and successfully so, as he was the president of his senior class and a star football player. Shortly thereafter, he realized he had a knack for performing, and joined the 1960s rock band The Young Rascals.  Eventually transitioning into acting, he was able to make ends meet as a New York City firefighter in the late 1970s. Appropriately so, he got his first big part in the 1985 firefighter film Turk 182, and then moved to Hollywood where he went on to appear in a series of feature films, television movies, and TV series. His most notable television role has been as Chief Jerry Reilly on FX's edgy firefighter drama, Rescue Me. He also recurred as Hickey in the Spike TV series, Players and has guest starred on such TV series as "Drop Dead Diva, Rizzoli & Isles, CSI: Miami, Criminal Minds, CSI: NY and Castle. He also starred in the critically acclaimed film The Fighter, opposite Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Melissa Leo. He can be seen in Moneyball with Brad Pitt, New Year's Eve directed by Garry Marshall and Gangster Squad starring Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin and Emma Stone.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Illeana Douglas. Illeana was one of the more versatile performers to emerge on film in the early 1990s. After small contributions to a few of director Martin Scorsese's films, including GoodFellas (1990), the actress grabbed the attention of audiences with her gutsy performance opposite Robert De Niro in Cape Fear (1991). She followed with a plethora of supporting roles, among them turns in the survival tale Alive (1993) and Gus Van Sant's dark satire To Die For (1995). As a lead, she was impressive and impassioned in the music industry-set Grace of My Heart (1996), and later flexed her comedic muscles as the classic "hooker with a heart of gold" in the woefully underappreciated comedy series Action (Fox, 1999). Occasionally, she ventured behind the camera for such efforts as Stories of Lost Souls (2005), for which she directed the segment entitled Supermarket. As an actress, she continually sought off-kilter indie films like the horror-comedy Otis (2008) and collaborated on personal projects such as the web series Easy to Assemble (2008- ), a fictionalized comedic version of her life, which she wrote, directed and starred in. Equally adept at eliciting either tears or laughter, at ease in a supporting role and more than capable of carrying the lead, time and again she proved herself a welcome addition to any production.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Daniel Roebuck. Daniel has many film credits including having starred in blockbusters like The Fugitive, US Marshals,and final Destination, as well as popular titles including Agent Cody Banks and it's sequel, That's What I Am, Money Talks, Flash Of Genius and so many more and he has also starred in dozens of TV Movies. Perhaps his most famous turn was his critically acclaimed portrayal of Jay Leno in The Late Shift. He stepped into another pair of famous shoes when he played Garry Marshall in Behind The Camera; Mork and Mindy, The Unauthorized Story. Other Movies for television include A Family Lost, A Glimpse Of Hell, Murder At The Presidio, Shredderman Rules, A Borrowed Life, Quints and many others. His voice over work includes Christmas Is Here Again (a film he also produced),The Haunted World Of El Super Beasto and the groundbreaking video game, L.A. Noire. As a television guest star, he has played countless characters. Some of his most memorable are a cop who literally turns into a pig on Grimm, a Romulan on Star Trek, Next Generation, a gun toting hostage taker on NYPD Blue, a cranky studio owner on Sonny With A Chance and a grieving father on Glee. He played other memorable roles on New Adventures of Old Christine, NCIS, Ghost Whisperer, CSI, Boston Legal, CSI Miami, Law And Order, Desperate Housewives and Hot in Cleveland. The theater remains his first love and he has continued that passion in the Los Angeles area. He appeared in the world premiers of Sarcophagus and Crooks. He has also starred in No Time For Sergeants, Here Lies Jeremy Troy, Arsenic and Old Lace and The Man Who Came To Dinner among others. In 2006 he founded The Saint Francis Stage Company.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Mark Rolston. Mark is best known for his role Bogs Diamond in the multi-Oscar nominated film The Shawshank Redemption but has appeared in countless other movies and TV shows. His first big role came in James Cameron's Aliens and has been seen in The Departed, Weeds, RoboCop 2, Hard Rain, Lethal Weapon 2, Saw V & VI, Rush Hour and many others. On television he has had recurring roles on series such as Profiler, CSI: Miami, Young Justice, The Shield, NCIS, Cold Case, Brooklyn South and 24 to name a few and has guest starred on Criminal Minds, Nash Bridges, The X-Files, NYPD Blue, Alias, Touched by an Angel, Star Trek: Enterprise, CSI: NY, The Mentalist, The Closer, Franklin & Bash and Touch and many more. He also lends his voice to various projects on the small screen and video games.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Chris Caldovino. Chris booked the recurring role of Billy Leotardo in 2004, on HBO's The Sopranos. After working on the famed show, Chris went on to book many more roles on TV and film, including FOX's The Good Guys and the film Brooklyn Rules with Alec Baldwin. As of late Chris has had roles in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-nominated film The Wolf Of Wall Street and the film Stealing Cars produced by Oscar-nominee Rachel Winter of Dallas Buyers Club, which will be released in 2015. Chris has just finished up a three-season stint as Tonino Sandrelli on HBO's Boardwalk Empire, for which he received a SAG-nomination for ensemble cast. Working on Boardwalk Empire Chris teamed up with some of the old Soprano's crew, including Oscar-nominee and Emmy-winning Writer/Producer Terence Winter, Director Tim Van Patton, and Steve Buscemi.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Tomas Boykin. Tomas recently played God in the hugely popular Super Bowl commercial for Mophie. He has various TV, film and stage credits.  He was born to a musician father and a stay at home mom. Growing up he enjoyed playing a musical instrument, painting, drawing, singing and dancing. He once stated, "We danced in our house. There were no wall flowers." He was encouraged to act as early as the 3rd grade. By the time he left college he had experienced "A Chorus Line," "Pippin," "Finian's Rainbow" and "Little Foxes" and many other musical productions. Tomas trained and performed professionally in both Philadelphia and New York. He became serious about performing when he moved to New York and eventually moved to LA.

Steve Cooper talks with photographer/writer Jaime Klein. Jaime moved out to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a stand-up comedian.  A regular spot at the Comedy Store, turned into writing gigs for Fernwood 2Nite and later the Gong Show.  That evolved to a produced screenplay called Pandemonium. 10 years of development deals for screenplays and pilots lead to a gig in broadcast marketing where he stayed for 15 years writing and producing promos/launch campaigns and short form programming for such shows as Seinfeld, Simpsons and Raising Hope. That advertising bug has now transitioned into a career as a portrait photographer.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Xander Berkeley. Xander started off playing minor roles in 1981, with appearances in Remington Steele, Miami Vice, Moonlighting and countless other series. Much later, he also appeared on The X-Files, CSI, ER, 24, and Law & Order. As for the big screen, he counts Sid & Nancy, North Country, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, A Few Good Men, Apollo 13, Gattaca, The Rock, Air Force One, Spawn, Amistad, and Timecode as some of his credentials. In 2001, he bagged a recurring spot as George Mason, head of the Counter Terrorist Unit on the hit series 24. His character was killed off in season 2. In 2009, he was cast on the NBC sci-fi series Day One, which follows apartment residents who survive an unknown worldwide catastrophe. From 2010 to 2012, he starred on The CW's Nikita as the villain Percy. The following year, he was seen on Being Human, Longmire, NTSF:SD:SUV and Louder than Words. Lately he has been seen on Salem, The Mentalist, Justified and numerous other shows. 

Steve Cooper talks with host Matt Gallant. Matt is an Emmy Award-winning television host. For five seasons, he was the host of the Animal Planet's popular series "The Planet's Funniest Animals," although the show is no longer in production, it regularly airs in repeats and continues to find new audiences in international markets. He has hosted shows on MTV, ESPN2, G4, NFL Network, Fine Living, ABC, DirecTV to name a few. He hosted the ABC's Network prime time hit American Inventor. In 2008, Gallant took a sabbatical from TV in hopes of making a difference in the world and began to purse a career as an Interventionist/Therapist, like his brother Paul. He spent over two years working as counselor at a dual diagnosis rehab in Venice California. In 2012 he enthusiastically returned to the TV business and Co-Hosted the entertainment show The List on the Scripps Network.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Rae Dawn Chong. Rae Dawn began appearing on Canadian television in her preteen years. Chong's first major TV role was on the popular 1974 sitcom The Wiz Kid of Riverton. Seven years later, she exploded onto the big screen as the mud-covered cave dweller Ika in Quest for Fire (1981), which earned her the Canadian equivalent of the Academy Award. Playing a variety of striking characters, she would be prominently cast in such films as The Color Purple (1985), American Flyers (1987), and Commando (1985). By the 90's, Chong was a bankable actress with multiple projects per year, including successful TV roles as well, on shows like Wild Card and Mysterious Ways. Throughout her career she has appeared in over 50 movies and countless TV shows.She recently released Cursed: Part 3 which she wrote, directed and co-starred in.