Angela Featherstone

Angela Featherstone
Born (1965-04-03) 3 April 1965 (age 59)
Occupation(s)Actress, writer, curator
Years active1991–present

Angela Featherstone (born 3 April 1965) is a Canadian actress, writer, director, and advocate for children in foster care. She grew up in Nova Scotia and Manitoba, Canada.[1][2]

Career

Modeling

Within a year of emancipating herself from foster care at age 17, Featherstone became Canada's top model when her September Flare magazine cover broke all previous records for sales. She quickly expanded upon her success and left for New York, where she signed with the illustrious Click models and later would be one of the first models signed to Next.[3] She would travel the world in the 80s as a top fashion model.

Acting

For acting, she downplayed her striking features to play unlikely roles, emerging as a versatile actress. She is best known for playing the Maid on Seinfeld, Chloe in Friends, and the fiancée (Linda), who left Adam Sandler's character (Robbie) at the altar in The Wedding Singer. Most recently, she played the role of Maggie on Showtime's Ray Donovan and Jame on HBO's Girls.[4]

Writing

Featherstone has created sitcoms for Sony, DreamWorks, and NBC television and has written nonfiction for Time, Jane, Flare, Huffington Post, Dame, and Zoomer. Her essay about childhood trauma, "God Said No", was published in the 2014 edition of Gargoyle magazine and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. In 2021, she published the essay "Forgiveness" in Dame magazine.[5][6]

An alumnus of UCLA Extension Writer's Program "Personal Essay & Memoir," she is completing her memoir.[7]

Directing

In 2022, Featherstone began directing with her debut seven-minute film, L'Étranger. As a director, she combines her years of experience in fashion as a model; working with important photographers and magazines such as; Italian, French, and American Vogue, Mademoiselle, Seventeen, Sassy, Harper's Bazaar Italia, Grazia, Harpers & Queens, Albert Watson, Bruce Weber, Irving Penn, her love of cinema and decades in the film industry; a refined sense of story as an oft published essayist; her passion for philosophy; and a love of creating safe spaces for collaboration, into a movement of aesthetic bliss.[8]

Curating

In 2011, she curated Fuck Pretty, a critically acclaimed photography exhibit at the Robert Berman Gallery - featuring emerging female photographers.[9]

Music

She recorded the song "Coattail Glide" with Raymond Pettibon and the band The Niche Makers in 2011.[10]

Producing

In 2014, she was an adjunct lecturer at the UCLA Professional Producing Program. In 2022, she produced L'Étranger.

Advocacy

Featherstone, a committed advocate for children in foster care, volunteered with the Children's Action Network, curating their Heart Gallery from 2011 to 2019 and served on their Winter Wonderland committee in 2014 and 2015. She also mentored a child in foster care through Kidsave from 2011 to 2020.[11] She has described suffering physical, emotional, and sexual abuse when she herself was a foster child.[12]

In 2021, she founded the nonprofit healing school for youth aging out of foster care, Fosteringcare.org. Through this trauma-healing intensive and healing-trade program, she and the founding board members hope to impact the brutal statistics for this extraordinarily vulnerable demographic.[13]

In 2014, she lectured at the ICAN Nexus Conference on Violence Within the Home and its Effects on Children. She continues to lecture and write about healing PTSD, child abuse, human trafficking, and intimacy. Her 2015 essay on child sex trafficking for DAME was picked up by Salon.com and MSN and was read by over seven million viewers. Since 2009, she has studied moral and spiritual psychology with Rabbi Mordecai Finley, Ph.D.[citation needed] She served as a consultant on Cracked Up, a Netflix documentary about the effects and healing of trauma.[citation needed]

Filmography

Movies

Year Title Role Notes
1988 Frantic Extra Uncredited
1992 Army of Darkness Girl in S Mart Uncredited
1994 Dark Angel: The Ascent Veronica Direct-to-video
1995 The Pompatus of Love Times Square Kisser
1996 Illtown Lilly
1997 Con Air Ginny
1998 Zero Effect Jess
1998 The Wedding Singer Linda
1999 200 Cigarettes Caitlyn
1999 Rituals and Resolutions Mirabell Short
2000 Takedown Julia
2000 The Guilty Tanya Duncan
2000 Skipped Parts Delores
2000 Ivans Xtc Amanda Hill
2001 Soul Survivors Raven
2002 Pressure Amber
2002 One Way Out Gwen Buckley
2003 Reeseville Judith Meyers
2006 Mother Carolyn Short
2006 Love Hollywood Style Cathy Sherman
2008 What Doesn't Kill You Katie
2009 The Soloist Commuter #1 Uncredited
2010 Beneath the Dark Sandy
2016 My Dead Boyfriend Norma

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1991 The Kids in the Hall Strip Club On-looker 1 Episode, "Episode #3.1'"
1993 Northern Exposure Carla 1 Episode, "Jaws of Life"
1994 New York Undercover Angela Mancini 1 Episode, "Garbage"
1995 The Wright Verdicts Michelle Farnon 1 Episode, "Sins of the Father"
1995 Family of Cops Jackie Fein TV movie
1997 Breach of Faith: A Family of Cops 2 Jackie Fein TV movie
1997 Friends Chloe 2 episodes
1997–1999 Cracker Det. Hannah Tyler 14 episodes
1998 Seinfeld Cindy 1 Episode, "The Maid"
2000 Jack & Jill Lucy 3 episodes
2000 Providence Andi Paulsen 9 episodes
2002 Federal Protection Leigh Kirkindall TV movie
2003 Dragnet Amy Halsted 1 Episode, "Let's Make a Deal"
2003 The Twilight Zone Kate Graham 1 Episode, "Burned"
2003–2004 The Guardian Suzanne Pell 10 episodes
2006 Caved In: Prehistoric Terror Samantha Palmer TV movie
2006–2009 Exes & Ohs Kris 14 episodes
2010 Huge Teal 2 episodes
2011 The Mentalist Rocket 1 Episode, "Like a Readheaded Stepchild"
2013 Girls Jame 1 Episode, "Bad Friend"
2016 Ray Donovan Mental Patient 1 Episode, "The Texan"

References

  1. ^ "Were Ross and Rachel on a break? N.S. actress who played the 'Xerox girl' weighs in". Atlantic. 13 June 2022. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  2. ^ "Cheddar". Cheddar. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  3. ^ "Angie Featherstone". Bellazon. 6 August 2021. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  4. ^ "Angela Featherstone - Contact Info, Agent, Manager - IMDbPro". IMDbPro Official Site. 20 June 2022. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  5. ^ Featherstone, Angela (24 September 2021). "Angela Featherstone". Dame Magazine. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  6. ^ "#61". Gargoyle Magazine. 12 August 2019. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  7. ^ "Success: Angela Featherstone Publishes in DAME Magazine". Writers' Program at UCLA Extension. 10 September 2015. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  8. ^ https://filmfreeway.com/projects/249981 [dead link]
  9. ^ "Fuck Pretty - Exhibitions". Robert Berman Gallery. 20 August 2011. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  10. ^ "Coattail Glide by The Nichemakers". Apple Music. 26 May 2009. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  11. ^ Featherstone, Angela (30 April 2013). "Change a Child's Life". Huffington Post. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  12. ^ Jones-Cooper, Brittany; Cosgrove, Jacquie (12 May 2022). "How actress Angela Featherstone's painful childhood inspired her mission to help others transition out of foster care". Yahoo! Life. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
  13. ^ "The Experiences of Older Youth In & Aged Out of Foster Care During COVID-19" (PDF).