CooperTalk

Steve Cooper talks with actor Deirdre Lovejoy. Deirdre is best known for her role on the HBO television series The Wire as Rhonda Pearlman. A familiar face to stage, she appeared recently on Broadway in the sold out run of Nora Ephron’s Tony Award winning Lucky Guy, starring Tom Hanks and has other Broadway credits including John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation plus numerous Off-Broadway and regional theatre credits. She has also appeared in the series Girls, Orange is the New Black, Bones, American Horror Story, Body of Proof, Private Practice, The Forgotten, The Medium, Criminal Minds, Lie to Me, The Closer, Nip/Tuck, Saving Grace, Strong Medicine, Outlaw, Close to Home, Shark, The Protector, The Lion's Den, The West Wing, Law & Order, Law & Order Special Victims Unit, Law & Order Criminal Intent, Cold Case, Close to Home, Numbers, Without a Trace, Brothers and Sisters, Eli Stone, NYPD Blue, Ed, Third Watch, Perfect Murder Perfect Town: The Jon Benet Ramsey Story, The Kennedys of Massachusetts and many more and films including the upcoming Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (directed by Ang Lee), Thirsty, Step Up, Bad Teacher, The Stepfather, Lionhead, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Gloria and Eric, Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, Random Hearts, Sour Grapes, Shaft, and The Freshman.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Lori Alan. Lori is perhaps best known for her award-winning voice-over work. Recently honored by her peers at the First Annual Voice Arts Awards (the Academy Awards for Voice-Overs) she took first-place prizes for Outstanding Body Of Work and Outstanding National Television Commercial. She starred as Diane Simmons on Family Guy, Pearl the Whale on SpongeBob: Squarepants, and Sue Richards, The Invisible Woman, on Marvel Comics' The Fantastic Four, among many other fantastic animated roles (Monster's University, Toy Story 3, Despicable Me 2, WALL.E, Henry Hugglemonster, Metal Gear Solid, Cow and Chicken, Animaniacs, and Futurama) and a long, successful commercial career. She also has firm roots in theatre, where she's thrived for over three decades. She most recently mounted a smash solo show, Lori Alan: The Musical, and appeared alongside Paul Reubens in The Pee-Wee Herman Show. Of her role as Queen Celia in the hit musical Sneaux!, Backstage West proclaimed, "Lori Alan might give Carol Burnett pause!" She originated the role of Mae in the award-winning musical Reefer Madness, a performance that earned raves from Kenny Morse of CBS Radio, who called her "a standout whose talent will take her very far". On TV from roles on the gripping Showtime drama Ray Donovan, to the hilarious Comedy Central gem Workaholics, to the deliciously naughty Desperate Housewives, her energy and natural essence flow effortlessly from genre to genre. A true character actress in every sense of the word, when Lori speaks, the world listens. She delves deeply into her material, emerging with the power to make the audience laugh and cry in the same moment. Her television career has flourished with appearances on Bones, Southland, CSI, 90210, Law and Order (both LA and the original), and every other show imaginable.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Elaine Hendrix. Elaine currently stars in the FX comedy Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll.  She’s also been in many movies including The Parent Trap, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2, Inspector Gadget 2, Superstar, Romy & Michele's High School Reunuion. She is a familiar face to TV too, appearing on hit shows such as Two and a Half Men, The Client List, NCIS: Los Angeles, Castle, The Mentalist, Criminal Minds, and CSI: Miami to name a few and she recurred on the new Beverly Hills 90210 as well as two years on the critically acclaimed CBS series Joan of Arcadia and has been in three holiday TV movies: Anything But Christmas, Mr. St. Nick and The Munster’s Scary Little Christmas.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Ken Davitian. Ken began acting full time in the early 1990s and spent the majority of his career being typecast as a short, fat, bumbling, and sometimes sleazy character in low budget B-movies before gaining small guest spots on television in such series as the HBO sports comedy Arli$$, The Shield and the HBO hit drama Six Feet Under. However in 2006, he would land a role that would dramatically change his life and acting career forever. He auditioned for a supporting role in the Sacha Baron Cohen project Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. The part he was going for was that of Azamat, the stout, rotund production assistant to the naïve, yet endearing, foreign reporter Borat. It was reported that during the audition, he began reading lines in an Eastern dialect of Armenian, prompting a comically entertaining back-and-forth between he and Cohen. Cohen instantly demanded that he be given the part of Azamat. His performance became somewhat of a cult, comedic classic and led him to more roles in feature films like the parody Meet the Spartans, the spy comedy Get Smart, the Oscar winning The Artist and others. His TV credits include It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Hawaii Five-O, Two and a Half Men, Big Time Rush and Ray Donovan. 

Steve Cooper talks with singer Annabella Lwin.  Annabella at the tender age of fourteen, was one of the most photographed, talked about and popular vocalists in the early 80’s with her band, BOW WOW WOW, who enjoyed success with massive hits such as I Want Candy, Do U wanna Hold Me?,  Go Wild in the Country and C30, C60, C90, Go! As well as writing and recording original material as a solo artist, she has been a featured vocalist on numerous transatlantic dance favorites with Tony B (LA’s hottest radio dance DJ) the Utah Saints (England's’ most innovative and popular DJ Duo) and Jason Nevins (Run DMC remixer of Walk this Way.)
 Her songwriting/co‐production brought her collaborations with Guy Chambers (songwriter for Robbie Williams’ chart hits) and seasoned producers such as Michael Lattanzi (Mariah Carey, Paula Abdul, Sly & Robbie, Anastasia.) After doing a commercial for Nike, writing songs for movies such as Desperate But Not Serious (starring Claudia Schiffer and Henry Rollins) and partnering with Mike Bradford (producer of the hits Follow Me by Uncle Kracker, You Get What You Give by the New Radicals, American Bad Ass by Kid Rock) Annabella has written and recorded songs for film: Scandalous with Sir John Gielgud, Phoenix Point starring Angelo Moore of Fishbone and  Salsoul Queen Cecilia Noel, (Cecilia & the Wildclams) Thief of Hearts starring Steven Bauer (Scarface) and produced by Harold Faltemeyer and Sofia Coppola’s 2006 hit Marie Antoinette to name a few.