Comic Film & Manga Fest Rotterdam 2024 - Guests - Part Four - The Walking Dead

Yes! This weekend it's finally time for Comic, Film & Manga Fest in Ahoy, Rotterdam (The Netherlands). We already wrote three articles about the movie- and TV guest of the con and today we talk about the last two of them. They are both "The Walking Dead" guests and we are here to tell you all about them.

After completing high school, Emily went to college. During her first year of college she was a music major, but she also started to go to the Theatre Department every night to work on shows. In 2006, Emily graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theater. She moved to New York to pursue a career in Broadway and a career in the acting business. Emily began her professional acting career, when she was cast as Anna in the play "Spring Awakening" at the age of 21. A year later she co-starred as Jean Fordham in the play "August: Osage County". Her career in television began in the year 2007 with minor roles in shows, like: "The Game Killers", "Law & Order: Criminal Intent", "The Unusuals" and "The Good Wife" (over the three years that followed). In 2010, Emily landed the role of Emily in three episodes of Showtime's "The Big C".  In 2011, Emily gets her big break when she joins the cast of "The Walking Dead" for the second season of the show with the role of Beth. Emily says she got the audition through her agent. She auditioned with one scene for Beth and one scene for Maggie. 

Emily said she did not know a lot about the show, but when she got a callback she watched some episodes and read some comics. Beth had a great storyline and over her years on the show Emily portrayed Beth perfectly and grew out to become one of the biggest fan favorites. Emily played the role of Beth for 50 episodes from 2011 until 2014 (with some flashbacks in later seasons). Spoiler alert: In my opinion Beth's death scene was the most emotional one in the show. I (Liv), remember that I was truly shocked and even shed a tear or two, when Darryl walked out with Beth in his arms. End of spoiler... In 2015, Emily appeared as Lauren in "Love on the sidelines", as Nora in 4 episodes of "Masters of Sex" and as Nurse Daisy Ryan in "The Knick" In 2016 and 2017, Emily plays Tess Larson in 13 episodes of the show "Conviction" and in 2017 she played Casey in "Ten Days in the Valley". In 2020, she plays the role of Staci Hardwick in the thriller series "Messiah" and in 2021 she played Jess in the comedy movie "The Enormity of Life". In 2022, Emily played Emily Strauss in "Santa Bootcamp". Over the years, Emily has never stopped making music and she released 5 albums. One thing is very sure: we haven't heard the last of Emily Kinney yet.

The second "The Walking Dead" guest is another fan favorite. She joined the cast in season 9 with the 'Whisperer' storyline. I am of course talking about Lydia and she is portrayed by the amazing Cassady McClincy.

Cassady Marie McClincy Zhang was born on 14 September 2000 in Ohio (U.S.). There is not much to be found about her childhood, but we do know that Cassady (and her three siblings) grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. Cassady started dancing and doing theater when she was only 7 years old. By the time she was 9 years old, she got an agent and at the age of 10, she started acting professionally. During the first years of her career Cassady played some minor roles in movies and TV shows. In 2017, she lands a minor role in the critically acclaimed TV show "Ozark", as Anna Sloan in the sixth episode of the first season of the show. Also in 2017, she played Tandy Ainsley in "Daytime Divas".

She auditioned for "The Walking Dead" and landed the role of Lydia. Before she started filming, Cassady had a meeting with executive producer Greg Nicotero and he gave her a big pile of comics to read. The comics had sticky notes to point out all of Lydia's parts. Nicotero told her to only use the comics as a blueprint. Eventually, Cassady ended up using the comics as a guideline alongside the scripts. Before she got the role in "The Walking Dead" Cassady was planning on moving to Los Angeles, but on the day the move would actually take place, she got the call that she had the role of Lydia. This meant she could stay in Atlanta. Cassady says she grew up watching "The Walking Dead" and was a big fan. She said that because of this, her first days on set were nerve-wracking. It did not take her long to get to know everyone and Cassady says it really felt like her family. She also says she did a lot of research for her role, read a lot about PTSD and about the effects of living in the wild. She says that it was great that she got the chance to experiment with Lydia's body language. When we first meet Lydia, she has spent a big part of her life moving around like a walker and then she ends up with 'normal' human beings. Cassady loved experimenting with Lydia's characteristics. I  (Liv) loved Lydia's storyline and Cassady does a great job portraying her.  Last year, I saw Cassady at Comic Con Manchester and she seemed so nice. Most recently, Cassady played Ashlyn in "Do Revenge" (2022).