who played rowena in mr. holland's opus
Jean Louisa Kelly In the mid-1990s, after graduating from college, Kelly became well known for a series of television commercials she did for MCI long distance,[2] in which she played a telephone operator who challenged AT&T. In 1995, she starred as Louisa in the musical film The Fantasticks with Joey McIntyre and Joel Grey, although the film was shelved until 2000. The same year, she appeared in her most prominent role since Tia, as Rowena Morgan, the muse for the title character of Mr. Holland's Opus. In the 1990s, other films followed. Later starring roles in films have included Landfall (2001) and Little Red Light (2003). Kelly appeared Off Broadway at the York Theatre in the title role in Paul McKibbins and B.T. McNicholl's The It Girl, based on the 1927 movie It. She also appeared in the York's "Mufti" series as Lois Lane in It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman.
Michael Benz Upon graduation from RADA, Benz made his professional stage debut in the Shakespeare's Globe touring production of The Winter's Tale playing Paulina and the Young Shepherd.[2] Also for Shakespeare's Globe, Benz appeared in Love's Labour's Lost, As You Like It, and the world premiere production of A New World: A Life of Thomas Paine.[3] In the summer of 2012, Benz played the title role in the Globe's production of Hamlet, directed by artistic director Dominic Dromgoole and Bill Buckhurst.[4] During the fall of 2012, the production toured the United States and Benz was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor at the Helen Hayes Awards in Washington, DC.[5] Benz made his West End theatre debut in 2011 playing Horatio in Trevor Nunn's production of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket.[6] Benz worked with Nunn again later that year, playing Ferdinand opposite Ralph Fiennes' Prospero, in The Tempest also at Theatre Royal, Haymarket.[7] Other stage appearances by Benz include Lee Baum in Arthur Miller's rarely seen The American Clock[8] and Christopher in the premiere of Oohrah! by Bekah Brunstetter,[9] both at the Finborough Theatre; Simon Bliss in Noël Coward's Hay Fever at the West Yorkshire Playhouse;[10] and Balthasar in Romeo & Juliet for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).[11] Benz was a guest star in the season four Christmas Special of Downton Abbey that was broadcast on 25 December 2013 in the UK (season 4, episode 8 in the US). Benz played Ethan, the American valet to guest star Paul Giamatti's character Harold Levinson.[12]