CLIFTON FORGE—Jana Allen, a member of Appalfolks of America Association’s board of directors who is a vocalist in The Virginia Opry, has landed the lead role of a movie being filmed in Charleston, S.C.
Allen, a 1999 graduate of Alleghany High School, began her acting career in the Historic Stonewall Theatre as a vocalist who sang “Buttons and Bows,” in 1992. She was in the sixth grade.
She sang with the Virginia Junior Opry while in high school, and after graduating from Liberty University, she completed two years at the William Esper Studio in Manhattan where she studied the Meisner technique of acting.
In Aug., “Remember Yesterday” premiered in the Stone Theater in Wilmington, N.C. It was the first feature film in which Allen had landed the lead female role. She portrayed Jenny Hill-Devlin.
She has been cast in the current film as the lead female role, a housewife whose husband purchases a home that is built above an unmarked graveyard.
Allen, who completed an internship as a news reporter in Norfolk, Va., prior to attending acting school, landed her first role in a film in 2005, two years following her graduation from Liberty University.
She was cast in the TV show, “Psychic Witness,” in an episode titled “Why My Child?” The character she portrayed helped the police solve the murder of her roommate.
In 2009, Allen landed a role in a Hollywood-released film, “The Bleeding,” a film in which she played a hooker in a scene opposite of Michael Madsen, a priest.
That led to her being cast in 2009 as a flight attendant in the TV show, “Eastbound & Down.” She performed in a scene with Sacha Baron Cohen.
In 2010, she was cast as Becca in “Hollywood East,” a TV show, and in 2011, she landed a role in “The Shunning,” a Hallmark movie directed by Michael Landon, Jr. She portrayed Amanda, a pregnant Amish wife.
Allen has appeared in TV commercials, including a Super Bowl TV commercial in which she performed opposite of Luke Kuechly, an all-pro linebacker for the Carolina Panthers.
In 2014, she was cast as Michelle Cable in “Your Worst Nightmare,” a TV series, and in the movie, “The Taking of Deborah Logan,” she portrayed Reporter #1.
Allen performed as a Drunken Flapper in “Firmly Grounded,” a short film in 2015, and in 2016, she portrayed Jenna Killinger in “The Hollow,” a movie.
In 2017, she was cast as Dr. T.J. Hewitt in an episode of “Dynasty,” a TV show; and as a TV Journalist in “Genius,” a TV show.
She was also cast as Heidi Shunway, the only eye witness to the Unabomber planting a bomb, in the “Manhunt Unabomber Series” that aired on TV in 2017.
“In Shots Fired,” a TV show, she landed the role of WNXC TV Reporter, and she portrayed Reporter Dean Delaney in the TV production of “Mr. Mercedes.”
In “The Tracker,” a short film, she portrayed Carrie Williams in 2018, and she portrayed Barb in the “Creep Show” segment titled “Model Kid” in 2019.
In 2019, she was cast as Kelly Seasons in “Righteous Gemstones,” a TV series that enabled her to be on set with John Goodman.
COVID-19 put a virtual stop to most movie-making in the U.S. during 2020, but in 2021, Allen was cast in “Fear Street Part I” as a TV Reporter.
In 2022, she landed a role as Female Reporter #2 in “Long Slow Exhale” on TV and a role as Missy LeHand on TV’s “The First Lady.”
Allen also performed in “Gift from a Yankee,” a film shot in the Alleghany Highlands that was aired on PBS TV in W. Va.
As for the current movie that is being filmed in Charleston, Allen noted that the name of the film has yet to be publicized.
She has also performed on stage in productions at the Cape Fear Theatre in N.C. and The Historic North Theatre in Danville, Va. in addition to the roles she landed in local productions at the Historic Stonewall Theatre as a teenager.
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