QUARANTWEEN: the Cast
(in order of appearance)
SOPHIE PETERSEN (Evie) is a 10-year-old actress who has loved the stage since birth. She had been performing in shows since the age of 5. Favorite roles include Alice in Alice in Wonderland (Village Arts), Jack in Into The Woods (Village Arts) and Merryweather in Sleeping Beauty (Children’s Acting Academy). Sophie was also seen in season 1 of Grace & Frankie on Netflix. She has appeared in a few commercials and print ads. Sophie loves theatre, music, dance, reading, songwriting, her family and hanging with friends.
KAREN ZIEMBA (Grandma Charlotte) has appeared in eleven Broadway shows. For some of her theatre performances she’s received the TONY, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Bay Area Theatre Critics, and Joseph Jefferson Awards. She’s guest starred on TV’s Madam Secretary, The Good Wife, Elementary, Law and Order’s S.V.U. and C.S.I., Scrubs, The Kennedy Center Honors, and PBS’s Great Performances from Carnegie Hall.
WYATT YANG (Lucas) is thrilled to be a part of Quarantween, his first acting role, and looks forward to future opportunities to perform. He has previously performed in school productions of The Jungle Book as well as with his family in Los Angeles. He enjoys soccer, parkour, tennis, video games, singing, and writing songs, including The Loneliest Jawbreaker, which is featured in Quarantween. Wyatt was born and raised in Los Angeles and is half Taiwanese-American, one quarter Japanese-American and Chinese-American
MADISON LANIER (Maya) is a 9-year-old Drama Queen who has been winning hearts since birth. She did a Huggies commercial for BET Networks. Madison has done print work for Pampers, Toys R’ Us, Babies R’ Us and Target and Heidi Klum just to name a few. She has appeared in several commercials including a Marshalls Mother’s Day special with her mother. She has done several STEM infomercials for Discovery Channel and Fatherly.com as well as several seatbelt infomercials. In Madison’s spare time, she enjoys basketball, gymnastics, building robots and spending time with her cousins.
MILES PETERSEN (Brandon)
Miles Petersen is 5 years old, and this is his debut performance. Miles loves telling jokes, playing monster trucks, and playing with his family. When he grows up he wants to be (in no particular order) a monster truck driver, a race car driver, a Broadway singer, a Daddy, an animal expert, and an artist.
CHANDRA LANIER (Liza) is a Multi-Media Journalist for Zazoom Media Group writing, voicing, editing and producing videos for USA Today, TIME Magazine, MSN.com and other outlets. Previously, she was a weekend news reporter for Fios1 News, a field producer for Black Enterprise Business Report and on-air personality for BETJ’s MY TWO CENTS! for which she received the NAMIC Award. She was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Leading Women’s Maya Angelou episode. Chandra has appeared in the films Split Ends, Bet Your Life, Proximity and Solid Milk Chocolate Man. TV appearances include the WCBS Morning Show, Throw Down on Food Network, Vacation Challenge on the Travel Channel, Law and Order: Special Victim’s Unit, Lipstick Jungle and Royal Pains. Additional credits include Vagina Monologues at the Apollo Theatre alongside Kerry Washington and Michelle Williams.
ERIC PETERSEN (Daniel) has worked extensively in Television and the Broadway stage. He will next be starring in a new AMC TV comedy, opposite Annie Murphy. Television credits include: Kirstie (Series Regular), Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, NCIS, CSI, and the Lifetime movie The Brittany Murphy Story. Eric has many Disney channel credits including the shows Jessie, Sydney to the Max, Kirby Buckets and Pair of Kings. Eric appeared in the Oscar-nominated Coen Brothers’ film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs for Netflix. Eric has appeared in four Broadway shows and countless regional theatre projects. Broadway credits include: School of Rock (Dewey Finn), Shrek: The Musical (Shrek on the 1st National Tour and Shrek Standby on Broadway), Escape To Margaritaville (Brick, OBC), and Peter & The Starcatcher (Ted). Graduate of Bradley University. @ericpete (insta) @theportlygentleman (insta)
DINA MORISHITA (Rebecca)
Dina Morishita is excited to be part of Quarantween. Her favorite roles include the lead roles of Eponine in the Broadway tour of Les Miserables, Kim in the Broadway Tour and Papermill Playhouse production of Miss Saigon, Smokey Joe’s Café, and the musical The Wedding Banquet. Film/TV credits include Las Vegas, Uncle P with Master P, and This Is Happening.
WELLY YANG (James) is delighted to be reunited with Carin Greenberg after appearing on her TV show Ghostwriter in the mid 90’s. Since then, he has performed leading roles in the original Broadway production of Miss Saigon, Peter Sellars’/John Adams’ Ceiling/Sky at Lincoln Center and in Europe, on TV in Law & Order: SVU, and Law & Order, among others. He also had his own talk show, Studio Y, on the former Metro Channel and performs regularly in Taiwan. His greatest role to date is as the father of Wyatt and Dakota and, of course, as the husband of Dina Morishita.
DAKOTA YANG (Isabel)
Dakota loves to sing and is so happy to be in her first professional show with her big brother and her parents. She has played the Narrator in Arachne, and several other school musicals. She loves soccer, video games, cooking and baking.
SHANNON LANIER (Kevin) Veteran television host Shannon LaNier currently co-anchors the CW39’s Morning Show in Houston, TX. He also hosts the critically acclaimed podcast, Daddy Duty 365 which features celebrity dads revealing the good, the bad and the funny of fatherhood. Previously, Shannon hosted Arise Entertainment 360, a daily culture and entertainment series that aired on BET's sister station, Centric, and on cable providers globally. Shannon is also a correspondent and senior producer on Black Enterprise Magazine’s nationally-syndicated shows: Black Enterprise Business Report & Our World With Black Enterprise. He also co-authored the Random House Inc. book Jefferson’s Children: The Story of One American Family, which follows his journey to uncover the history behind his heritage as a 9th generation direct descendant of President Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings.