STARRING LAURA VANDERVOORT, CORY M. GRANT, RACHEL HENDRIX, JASON BURKEY, JASON BURKEY WITH JON LOVITZ AND KEVIN SORBO
PREMIERES EXCLUSIVELY ON UP, AT 7:00 P.M. EST / 8:00 P.M. PST ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
Coffee Shop: Love Is Brewing is the story of Donavan Turner (Laura Vandervoort), a smart, independent, twenty-something woman looking for just the right blend of happiness in her life. She owns a hip neighborhood coffee shop in a quaint, scenic beach town and her specialty is matching people to their perfect, new brew. While she’s been less than successful fixing her love life, Donavan enjoys her work and has the robust support of her sister Becky (Rachel Hendrix), Becky’s boyfriend Kevin (Jason Burkey) and the wonderful, eclectic family of her coffee shop regulars. Unfortunately, she’s keeping a secret from them all. The new bank owner, Frank Miller (Jon Lovitz), won’t extend her loan and she’s facing immediate foreclosure. Things get further complicated when Donovan’s ex-boyfriend Patrick (Josh Ventura) returns to declare his love just as her clashes with Broadway playwright -- and tea-drinker – Ben Carson (Cory M.Grant) get interesting. Ben is in town writing his new play for his producer (Kevin Sorbo). With love and financial ruin bubbling around her, Donovan realizes that her identity and self-worth are not defined by what she can accomplish alone. Instead, Donovan – and her community – can accomplish more together, which leads her to make choices she may not have before.
LAURA VANDERVOORT (“DONAVAN”)
Laura Vandervoort is a versatile actress who not only crosses over genres, but also changes from character to character flawlessly embracing the essence of every role she plays. From being listed in Maxim's Top 100 hottest women two years in a row, to recently spearheading a national PETA campaign, to starring in an upcoming studio film alongside Mark Wahlberg, Laura has been having an amazing year full of momentum. Best known for her roles on the television shows "Smallville" and "V," she has built an international fan base of men and women of all ages. Between her beauty, experience and stellar acting chops, Laura has been consistently working as an actress since she was 13-years-old. She first began her career in background work on Canadian commercials and TV shows, including "Road to Avonlea" and "Harriet the Spy." Laura landed her first speaking role at the age of 13, for the children's series "Goosebumps," and then "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" She went on to take acting classes and booked other TV guest star roles, such as Disney movies of the week "Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire" and "Alley Cats Strike." At 19, while attending York University under the concentration of Psychology and English, Laura landed the lead role of "Sadie Harrison" on the CTV TV series"Instant Star," a popular series that ran for four seasons. In 2006, Laura shot her first feature film The Lookout, starring Jeff Daniels, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mathew Goode and Isla Fisher. Several TV appearances afterwards, such as "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," led Laura to landing the coveted role of "Supergirl" a.k.a "Kara" on the hit The CW series "Smallville." Laura became the main focus of the 7th season of the popular sci-fi drama. Following "Smallville," Laura booked the sequel to the Jessica Alba/Paul Walker feature film Into The Blue titled Into the Blue 2: The Reef . After The Reef, the in-demand actress went directly into filming The Jazzman, Out of Control and Damage. After "Damage," Laura booked a lead role in a miniseries that was the SyFy channel's re-launch of Philip José Farmer's "Riverworld." While shooting "Riverworld," Laura also booked a series regular spot for ABC's sci-fi series "V" with Elizabeth Mitchell and Scott Wolf. After "V," she booked and shot five feature films back to back: The Entitled, starring Ray Liotta; McG's This Means War, starring Reese Witherspoon and Chris Pine; Desperately Seeking Santa, with Nick Zano; Broken Trust, and Seth Macfarlane’s hit comedy Ted, starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis. Laura has since continued on her superhero path voicing "Mary Jane" in the new Spiderman video game, which would be her second voiceover gig after doing three episodes of "Family Guy." More recently, Laura has guest starred on several series, including “Haven,” “CSI-NY,” and “White Collar.” She also starred in Canadian independents: Cubicle Warriors and Finding Mrs. Claus. In addition, Laura has ventured into new territory – writing a children's book series for young girls and boys between the ages of 7-12. It has since been developed with Shaftesbury films into a live-action children's series with exciting progress. Laura is the creator and executive producer of the project titled “Super Duper Deelia.” Currently, Laura is the lead of the new series “Bitten” for Syfy and Space. “Bitten” is based on “The New York Times” best-selling series of novels by Kelley Armstrong. Laura plays ‘Elena Michaels’ the only female werewolf in existence. With high praise critically and a large fan-following, the series gained strength and praise for both performance and cinematography. She currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.
CORY M. GRANT (“BEN”)
Cory M. Grant was born in Santa Barbara, CA and is the oldest of three boys. Having been raised by a single mom for the first 11 years of his life, he became accustomed to change at a fairly young age. Never afraid to try new things, he joined the drama department his senior year of high school. After booking his first lead role in a play rendition of “The Pink Panther Strikes Again,” he got the “bug.” But it would be almost 7 years before Cory got to act again due to college and his commitment to various business ventures. Finally landing in Hollywood, he now had the life experience and drive needed to take on the career he dreamed of. After being booked in small roles on soap operas and student films, Cory was cast in Coffee Shop: Love Is Brewing. This is his first lead in a feature and he couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity.
RACHEL HENDRIX (“BECKY”)
From an early age, Rachel Hendrix, a deep-south native of Dothan, Alabama, knew that she wanted to be an actress. Hendrix attended The University of Montevallo where she received a BFA in photography. Before graduating college, she was introduced to filmmaker Kris Kimlin and was asked if she would act in his short film, Letting Go. Because of that role, she was discovered by Kimlin's long-time friend Jon Erwin, Co-Founder of Erwin Brothers Entertainment. Since then, Hendrix has appeared in many short films, music videos and commercials with the Erwin Brothers. In 2008, Hendrix graduated and married Swiss musician Gabriel Trüb and moved to Switzerland putting her acting work on hold to focus on her marriage and build a photography business. However, the acting bug had already bitten and by 2009 Hendrix landed the lead in Halogen Network's TV pilot, “Alumni.” Much of the “Alumni” cast re-united to film once again with the Brothers in their first feature film, October Baby, which released on March 23, 2012 in select theaters across the country. The film had the third highest per-screen average and closed at No. 8 in the nation for its opening weekend competing again The Hunger Games. Opening in a relatively modest 390 theaters, Samuel Goldwyn Films/Provident’s October Baby also strode grassroots support and word of mouth to a No. 1 rating for limited-release movies. Since October Baby's release in 2012, Hendrix has starred in two feature films in 2012: The Perfect Wave with Scott Eastwood and Cheryl Ladd, and Letting Go with Andrew Cheney.
JASON BURKEY (“KEVIN”)
Jason Burkey is an award-winning actor based out of Atlanta, GA. He has starred in multiple feature films, but is probably best known for his leading role alongside John Schneider in the 2012 box office success, October Baby, for which Variety gave Jason’s performance praise saying that he “hit all the right notes.” Jason has worked directly with several notable actors during his career including Jason Isaacs, Jon Lovitz, Laura Vandervoort, John Schneider, Kevin Sorbo, Shelley Long, Robert Davi, Edie McClurg, John Diehl, Nicole Gale Anderson and Adam Herschman. Other film credits include Moms’ Night Out, Losers Take All, A Long Way Off, Beacon Point and A Matter Of Time, to name a few. He also starred in the multiple awardwinning indie hit, 10 Commandments of Chloe, which won him the award for Best Supporting Actor at the LA Movie Awards and a nomination for Best Actor at the Maverick Movie Awards.
JON LOVITZ (“FRANK MILLER”)
For the last 25 years, Jon Lovitz has been one of the best known comedians in the universe… well, according to his cats. For the first 10 years of his career, he did plays in high school, earned a B.A. in Drama at the University of California, Irvine and studied acting with Tony Barr at the Film Actors Workshop. After an unfruitful year in New York, he returned to Los Angeles and at the advice of Tony Barr, he began concentrating solely on comedy. He began taking classes at the famous improv and comedy group, “The Groundlings” in 1982. A year later, after being accepted into “The Sunday Company,” Jon got his first job as an actor for two weeks on the television show “The Paper Chase: the Second Year.” Thinking he was on his way, he promptly quit his job at the clothing store… and became a messenger. The next three years – nothing!!! Then, in September of 1984, he was accepted into the main company at The Groundlings. On March 28, 1985, The Groundlings appeared on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.” It was here Jon premiered his character “Tommy Flanagan of Pathological Liars Anonymous.” This kicked off a series of events, including getting an agent, a movie (Last Resort) and a series (“Foley Square”) on the same day, a voice over for a cartoon (“The Brave Little Toaster”) and the big break of his career (with the recommendations of Larraine Newman and Charles Grodin) “Saturday Night Live”… all this by September of 1985. He has not stopped working since. He was nominated for an Emmy ® his first two years on “Saturday Night Live.” He became known for many characters, including “Tommy Flanagan of Patholigical Liars Anonymous” (“Yeah, that’s the ticket!”), “Master Thespian,” “Hannukah Harry” and “the Devil.” He has appeared in over 30 movies, including Big, A League of their Own, The Wedding Singer, High School High, Small Time Crooks and Rat Race. He has worked with some of the best comedy directors, including Penny Marshall, Rob Reiner, Jerry Zucker and -- the man who influenced Jon to be a comedian in the first place (when Jon was 13) – Woody Allen. He has also worked with such filmmakers as Todd Solonz (Happiness) and Richard Kelly (Southland Tales). Jon has become well known for his distinctive voice. He was the lead voice of the character “Jay Sherman” in the acclaimed cult cartoon series, “The Critic” and has done voice overs for many other animated features (American Tale: Fievel Goes West , Cats and Dogs, Eight Crazy Nights, Hotel Transylvania, etc.). He has also worked on “The Simpsons” many times, including creating the character of Marge Simpson’s boyfriend, “Artie Ziff” (which sounds suspiciously like Jay Sherman). He has appeared on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre in Neil Simon’s play “The Dinner Party,” taking over the lead role from Henry Winkler. He has sung (yes, he can sing!) at Carnegie Hall three times (including “Great Performances: Ira Gershwin at 100: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall”) and sung the National Anthem at Dodger Stadium and the U.S. Open. And he sung with the English rock star, Robbie Williams at the Royal Albert Hall and appears on his album, “Swing While You’re Winning!” He was the first famous guest star on the hit show “Friends” and guest starred on “Seinfeld” the same week. In 2005, he guest starred three times on the hit show “Las Vegas” in a recurring role. In 2006, he was offered (and accepted) a recurring role on the hit show “Two and a Half Men,” playing Charlie Sheen’s nemesis, Archie Baldwin. Most recently, he guest starred on “New Girl” and “Mr. Box Office.” In 2004, he pursued his dream of becoming a stand-up comedian. He is one of the few performers to start as an actor and then become a stand-up and is now successfully headlining in nightclubs, theatres and casinos across the United States, Çanada, and recently, Dubai. In 2006, he appeared in four feature films: Mel Brook’s The Producers: The Musical, Adam Sandler’s The Benchwarmers, Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales and Amy Heckerling’s I Could Be Your Woman. In June of 2009, he starred opposite Kevin Spacey in the movie, Casino Jack, directed by George Hickenlooper. Most recently, he guest starred in the film Grown Ups 2. Also in June of 2009, he opened his own comedy club, aptly named the “Jon Lovitz Comedy Club” (thejonlovitzcomedyclub.com) at Universal City Walk, in Los Angeles. Headliners at the club have already included Dana Carvey, Carlos Mencia, Gabriel Iglesias, the Legendary Guitarist Dick Dale and in the near future, Russell Peters (who is currently the biggest stand-up comedian in the world) and David Spade. The club has a Hawaiian theme, complete with a set by top set designer, Bruce Ryan and paintings by the internationally famous Hawaiian artist, Wyland.
KEVIN SORBO (“PRODUCER”)
Kevin Sorbo has enjoyed success on television for over 20 consecutive years, a feat rarely accomplished by an actor. Sorbo quickly rose to stardom in the title role of the hit series, “Hercules, the Legendary Journeys.” The immense popularity of the five initial two-hour telefilms in 1993 resulted in the launch of a weekly series by 1994. The series not only became a breakout hit by becoming the number one first-run program in syndication, it also passed “Baywatch” as the most watched TV show in the world airing in 176 countries. The innovative action hour revitalized the entire action/adventure genre on television and fostered two spin-off series: “Xena, Warrior Princess” and “Young Hercules.” Sorbo also directed two episodes of the show, and co-wrote one installment. Following the success of “Hercules,” Sorbo went on to star in the lead role as “Captain Dylan Hunt” in “Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda.” The series, based upon writings from the late “Star Trek” creator’s archives, debuted as the number-one hour show in first run syndication and held that spot throughout its five-year run from 2000-2005. The show was seen in over 150 countries around the world. In 1997, Sorbo made his feature film debut in Kull, the Conqueror, a prequel to Conan, the Barbarian. His other films include: Walking Tall, the Payback, Walking Tall, Lone Justice, The Last Chance Café , Something Beneath, Clipping Adam, Avenging Angel , Meet the Spartans, Prairie Fever and Jackie A. A string of SyFy channel movies include: Fire From Below, Lightning Strikes, Paradox, Never Cry Werewolf and Flesh Wounds. More recently, Sorbo starred in UP’s highly rated film Christmas Angel , Tales of an Ancient Empire, The King of Mykonos, Julia X, Soul Surfer, The Hit and What If... Future films include Piranha Sharks and Poison Sky. In addition to his work onscreen, Kevin now also produces films, recently serving as Executive Producer and star of the movie Abel's Field, which also premiered on UP. Sorbo has starred and guest-starred on numerous TV shows, including “Key and Peele,” “Don’t Trust the B--- in Apartment 23,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “Gary Unmarried,” “Just Shoot Me,” “Wolf Canyon,” “According to Jim,” “Hope and Faith,” “Two and a Half Men,” “Psych,” “Dharma and Greg”” and “The OC.” Electronics Media Magazine named Sorbo TV’s third most bankable star behind Oprah and Regis. Sorbo is also spokesman for A World Fit For Kids, a non-profit organization that provides gang, drug, and dropout prevention to teens through mentoring programs. Sorbo has headed up that foundation since 1997 serving 12 schools in the Los Angeles school district and over 12,000 students. The program was awarded the Governors Gold Star for being the most successful after school program in the state of California in 1997. Sorbo was also named national spokesperson as successor to Arnold Schwarzenegger for The Afterschool Alliance in 2003, a nonprofit organization working to ensure that all children have access to safe, enriching afterschool programs. A native of Mound, Minnesota, Sorbo is a sports enthusiast and an avid golfer. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Sam, and three young children.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
DAVE ALAN JOHNSON (DIRECTOR/PRODUCER)
In the two decades he has worked in Hollywood, Dave has created, produced, written, and directed nearly a half billion dollars worth of entertainment. He has collaborated with some of Hollywood's top names (including teaming up with Steven Spielberg to Co-Create and Executive Produce DreamWorks premier television production - the ABC hit drama, "High Incident") and has created product for virtually every major entertainment company including Disney, Paramount, Sony, Warner Brothers, DreamWorks, MGM, FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, and many others. Dave recently directed and co-produced a movie and has several TV projects in development at two different networks. He most recently wrote and executive produced the Hallmark Movie Channel film "Christmas With Tucker," which was the most watched HMC Original Premiere in network history. He also recently executive produced the feature film "October Baby," which was the number one independent movie at the box office in its release - finishing in the top ten box office of all movies in its first weekend.
JON AND ANDREW ERWIN (EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS)
With October Baby and Moms’ Night Out, the Erwin Brothers (erwinbrothers.com) add feature film to their impressive portfolio of creative work: dramatic TV series, award-winning documentaries, reality television, shorts, music videos and commercials. Jon and Andrew Erwin began their career as teenagers, working as camera operators for ESPN. The brothers eventually worked on numerous events, including ESPN College Football Primetime, NFL, X Games, and NBA. In 2005, the brothers ventured into directing commercials and music videos. They found great success in the world of music, directing music videos and producing concerts and television programs for platinum artists including Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Casting Crowns, Switchfoot, Skillet, and Montgomery Gentry among many others. They have received 12 nominations and three consecutive wins for Music Video of the Year at the GMA Dove Awards.
BRUCE JOHNSON (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER)
A multiple Emmy® Award winner, Bruce Johnson has enjoyed a successful career producing television series and movies for over 25 years. Most recently, he executive produced Norman Rockwell’s Shuffleton’s Barbershop for Hallmark and Finding Mrs. Claus, an original movie for Lifetime. He has produced or executive produced over 40 movies and has written, story edited and produced over 1200 episodes of television programs. Johnson’s movies and series have been distributed by Universal, Disney, Sony Pictures, Paramount, and Fox and have aired on nearly every major network including ABC, NBC, Discovery, HBO, Showtime, PBS, TNT, TBS, Animal Planet, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, Showtime, History Channel, BBC and others. The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible, an animated series Johnson story edited and produced, was translated into over 75 languages and sold over 20 million copies, becoming one of the best-selling original home video series of all time. Johnson played high school and college basketball in Minnesota. He later attended Northwestern University, where he studied film, television and English, completing his Ph.D. degree.
CREDITS
UP Entertainment presents a Salt Entertainment Production In association with Erwin Brothers Entertainment and Foxfield Entertainment
Laura Vandervoort
Cory M. Grant
Rachel Hendrix
Jason Burkey
Josh Ventura
Gabriela Lopez
Montrel Miller
Robert W. Hill
Oliver Trevena
Dave Alan Johnson
with Jon Lovitz and Kevin Sorbo.
Executive Produced by
Jon and Andrew Erwin
Tom Wertheimer
Bruce Johnson
Christian Bruyere
Produced by
Daryl Lefever
Dave Alan Johnson
Jerilyn Bickford
Screenplay by
Theresa Preston and Jon Erwin
Directed by
Dave Alan Johnson
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