Actor, singer and longtime supporter of the United Nations Refugee Agency Kat Graham has been named a Goodwill Ambassador in the world. She is just one of five Americans to have received the title.

Variety caught up the “Vampire Diaries” actor, who recently starred in Netflix’s “Operation Christmas Drop,” to talk about her work with the UN.

How does this position influence the work you’re hoping to continue?
My grandfather was a UN ambassador. And it’s a rare opportunity to be appointed UNHCR ambassador — I’m the fifth in the United States to be appointed. There are a lot of people that work hard within the UNHCR so to be recognized for my efforts, my passion for this agency, is a profound moment for me. I’m still processing it because it’s been probably my greatest dream.

Given the multiple crises facing the world, what priorities do you see UNHCR taking on?
UNHCR takes on so much. All of the work that they’re doing to not just raise awareness, but to rush staff and supplies to the border in Ethiopia in the Tigray region for refugees that are fleeing for safety into Sudan, even in the midst of this pandemic.

They do so much in raising awareness, not just of the plight of refugees but also the voice of refugees because a lot of people think that refugees are victims or have so many misconceptions. For me, it’s important that I stand also within their messaging.

People have criticized those with privilege for not taking more action. What do you hope to see fellow Hollywood figures do to help make the world better?
We all have our soul work. I really can’t speak on to what another celebrity does with their time because a lot of people do things in private. I don’t judge or want to spend the time knocking somebody down for what they might or might not do publicly or at all.

For me, it hits a little bit harder, because it’s literally in my blood. I’m the granddaughter of refugees, and I now have an opportunity to fight for them. I have made it my mission to not take the fact that I exist for granted, to not take the fact that I’m a celebrity for granted.

What advice would you give to people who want to make a difference?
Find the thing that you connect with directly. I think that if people can even donate in somebody’s name, that would be the greatest gift. I do believe the biggest gift we can all give ourselves in 2020 is the gift of awareness: the awareness of systematic racism, of our health workers, the awareness that we are in one of the worst refugee crises that we’ve had in a decade, that this is not a political issue, this is a human rights issue.

When will we be seeing “The Vampire Diaries” reunion or reboot?
I am truly grateful that I was on a show that blanketed across the world. I went to countries where I couldn’t believe anyone knew who I was. That to me is so humbling and lovely. One of the greatest things about the show ending is that I now actually am able to travel and to go to these countries, and to look people in the eye and hold their hands and see what they need. The chapter of my new position as a Goodwill Ambassador has arrived, and I will not sacrifice that time for anything.

Netflix heeft Virgin River vernieuwd voor een derde seizoen. Verwachting is dat het seizoen volgend jaar op de streamingsdienst te zien zal zijn.

Candice en haar man Joseph zijn op 1 december ouders geworden van hun tweede dochter Josephine June King. Samen heebben ze al een dochter Florence van 4 en man Joseph heeft dochters Ava en Elise uit een eerdere relatie.

The Vampire Diaries alum Candice Accola King announced on Thursday, Dec. 10, that she and husband Joe King have welcomed their second child and her former co-stars rushed to congratulate her.

Candice Accola King is a mom again and her Vampire Diaries family is just as thrilled as her own.

The actress, who played Caroline Forbes on the CW series and its spinoff The Originals, gave birth to her and husband and The Fray guitarist Joe King’s second child and daughter on Dec. 1. Candice, 33, announced the news on her Instagram page on Thursday, Dec. 10.

“Last week our baby girl flew into the world and into our hearts,” she wrote, alongside a photo of her holding one of the newborn’s tiny hands. “We love you Josephine June King! 12/1/20.”

Josephine joins big sister Florence May King, 4, and stepsisters Ava and Elise, Joe’s daughters from a previous marriage.

Joe posted on his Instagram page a photo of him cradling baby Josephine, who is wearing a pink outfit while napping. He wrote, “It is now one of the best years of my life, truly grateful to welcome our Josephine June King, born Dec 1st, 2020.”

Joe added, “I’m also very proud she looks just like her momma @candiceking who is a warrior woman goddess, I’m lucky to create this perfect love with you.”

“So perfect,” fellow Vampire Diaries and The Originals alum Claire Holt commented. The actress, who played Rebekah Mikaelson on the shows, gave birth to her own second child in September. Claire also commented on Candice’s pic, “So happy for you.” Kayla Ewell, who played Vicki Donovan on The Vampire Diaries, also commented on both photos. She wrote to Candice, “Hi Sweet Josephine!! Auntie Kay loves you!!” Michael Malarkey, who played Enzo St. John on The Vampire Diaries, commented on Candice’s pic with three blue heart emojis.

Many fans noted that Candice’s newborn daughter’s name is similar to Josie, who the actress’ character carried as a surrogate on The Vampire Diaries and later raised as a daughter after her biological mother died. Candice was pregnant with her and Joe’s first daughter while filming that season seven storyline in 2015.

Kat Graham (The Vampire Diaries), Alex Pettyfer (I Am Number Four) and singer and actress Macy Gray (Change In The Air) are set to star in romance-thriller Forget To Remember.

Filmmaker Michael Dinh (Prodigal)’s feature, currently in pre-production, will follow an emotionally vulnerable young man who gets tricked into fulfilling a mysterious young woman’s dying wish by taking her on a cross-country road trip.

Dinh scripted with Audrey Easton from a story by Yahkaeem Jasper Thos.

Beverly Hills-based sales firm Motus Studios has acquired worldwide rights and is also co-producing. It is being produced and financed by 444 Film Group and Go Media Productions. Autumn Bailey-Ford is also producing. Shoot is scheduled for January 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Vampire Diaries actress Graham has most recently starred in Netflix rom-com Operation Christmas Drop, RZA’s Cut Throat City, and Civil War drama Emperor.

As we revealed last week, I Am Number Four and Endless Love star Pettyfer will direct, produce and star in action-thriller Phantom of Belgrade with Oliver Masucci. Grammy-winner Gray has appeared in movies including Cardboard Boxer, Change In The Air and Dutch.

Dinh was invited to student event Campus Movie Fest at the Cannes International Film Festival in three consecutive years (2015-2017).

Pettyfer is represented by ICM Partners and Independent Talent Group. Graham is represented by APA and 3 Arts Entertainment. Gray is repped by Paradigm.

Kat Graham, who currently stars in Netflix’s holiday hit Operation Christmas Drop, has signed with APA.

Kat Graham, who currently stars in Netflix’s holiday hit Operation Christmas Drop, has signed with APA.

The actress-singer-dancer broke out with a starring turn in The Vampire Diaries and was recently seen in RZA’s Cut Throat City opposite Terrence Howard, Wesley Snipes, T.I. and Ethan Hawke. She also appeared in this year’s Civil War drama, Emperor, produced by Reggie Hudlin.

Graham is also doing voicework for the Trolls animated spinoff series TrollsTopia as well as Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Additional recent credits include Lionsgate’s Poison Rose opposite Morgan Freeman and John Travolta, Netflix’s How It Ends opposite Forest Whitaker and the Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez On Me.

She is also a brand ambassador for L’Oréal.

Graham is additionally repped by 3 Arts Entertainment.

Kat Graham isn’t just an incredible actress; she’s also making a positive change with the roles she takes on. The 31-year-old first began acting at a young age — with guest spots on Lizzie McGuire, Greek, and Hannah Montana — but gained a huge following for her starring role as the fierce and powerful witch Bonnie Bennett on The Vampire Diaries. While the role helped jump-start her career in a lot of ways, it also taught her an important lesson about representation.

“The role of Bonnie was so, so special because it really shaped my career in a lot of ways,” she told POPSUGAR. “I owe so much of my fan base internationally to the awareness of that show. It was also a show where I was the only African-American regular, and it brought to my attention certain things that I wanted to make sure I was thoughtful of when I move forward in my career. I learned so much moving forward. I mean, not every character has to be a badass and has to start off strong in any way. I think we as women, we have things that happen to us that make us strong. We have things that happen to us that change the way we see ourselves, and that’s OK, too. The journey doesn’t have to be, ‘I have the answers all the time.’ The journey is, ‘I trust myself enough to go through what I need to go through to find it.'”

“I watch projects that challenge and rebel against the mold, especially for women.”
When Graham considers new projects, she’s always asking, “Does it make the world better?” “If you look at the films that I released this year alone, from Emperor, which was a pre-Civil War film educating people about Shields Green — who helped spark the Civil War — to Cut Throat City, which we shot in the Ninth Ward — which has been superneglected post-Hurricane Katrina — I look for things that help raise the awareness of what people might not know about or communities that might be overlooked or marginalized societies that are not getting the proper attention or support that they need,” she said. “For me, there has to be some element of what is new here that I can help bring to people’s awareness? I’m interested in chipping away at how stories are told, and I watch projects that challenge and rebel against the mold, especially for women.”

That was in large part what drew her to her latest project, Netflix’s Operation Christmas Drop, which is based on the Air Force’s real-life humanitarian airlift operation. “The fact that I could do a project that centres around compassion and generosity and a different kind of Christmas, a different kind of relationship, a different kind of woman, that was really, really attractive for me,” she said. “I’m all about trying to break molds, and how people view women, or Black women, or women that have careers, or just the different dimensions that we are as women.”

The film was also the first Hollywood production to film in Guam, so Graham made sure to learn about its history when she arrived. “They have a museum there that I went to, so I learned the history of Guam,” she said. “I learned the positive, the negative, everything that the people of Guam have gone through, the nature of the people of Guam, and just really got a lot of education on what that looks like. I met with Indigenous communities, and they’re such a beautiful people and loving people with such an intense history, and they deserve to be celebrated and highlighted and profiled and seen all over the world.”

“They’re very important not because they helped my career; they’re important because they are important.”
As Graham continues forward with her career, she hopes to inspire her fans as much as they’ve inspired her. “I think overall, people have this [distinction of] celebrity and your fans, and I’m lighting that up in flames,” she said. “My relationship with my audience is much more intimate than that. Every Saturday, I take 10 fans internationally, and it’s a superprivate thing that we do, and we just talk and I check in on them and they tell me how much time they spend watching me and supporting me. I really feel that I’m an even bigger fan of them than they are of me. They’ve helped me understand myself better in a lot of ways and how I want to move forward. They helped me understand my responsibility to them. They’re very important not because they helped my career; they’re important because they are important. Their opinion matters. Their perspective matters. Their choices matter. Their health matters. They’re important because they matter. I constantly want them to feel that they matter and that their voices are heard.”

Operation Christmas Drop is available to stream on Netflix now.

Netflix’s globally streaming documentary is stirring important conversations about the solution we’re all standing on: soil.

Ian Somerhalder, of The Vampire Diaries and Lost series fame, believes Netflix’s Kiss the Ground is the “single most important documentary ever.”

“This is a paint-by-numbers way of how to stop climate change,” says the actor turned executive producer for the film. It’s one that’s stirring conversation about a “new, old approach” to farming called regenerative agriculture. Kiss the Ground makes the point that the solution is right under our feet, and how we manage soil has “the potential to balance our climate, replenish our vast water supplies, and feed the world.”

Yet, it’s a film about dirt, a running joke for the cast and crew of the documentary. So Somerhalder and colleagues had to find a practical way to humanize the overarching narrative that concerns just how much conventional agriculture has transformed our world — for better or worse, but mostly the latter — and how soil regeneration by farmers might provide a viable way to abate consequences of a warming world.

Ian Somerhalder, actor and executive producer of Kiss the Ground, sits down with Neil Ever Osborne, Climate Change and Sustainability Editor at The Weather Network, to discuss dirt, bourbon, and climate change.

Read More »

Are you crazy for The Vampire Diaries or just Stefan? Here’s your chance to meet Paul Wesley in a personal 1-on-1 meet and greet and ask your best questions. Packages include a photo signed by Paul and an exclusive shirt!

https://Fanmio.com/Wesley

Candice en ook 3 andere castleden zullen niet te zien zijn in het vervolg van ‘After We Collided’. De wijziging in cast is dat zij niet beschikbaar zijn voor de opnames nu deze verplaats zijn en nu zullen plaatsvinden in Bulgarije. Candice rol wordt overgenomen door een bekende in de TVD wereld, Arielle Kebbel aka Lexi zal de rol van Kimberly Vance gaan spelen in de komende twee films.

“Dear Afternators, it was important to us to finish telling Tessa and Hardin’s story in a timely manner, and given the challenged posed by the Covid19 pandemic, we had to make some difficult choices. At the end of the day, these choices were all in service of protecting the cast and crew and doing our best to deliver you, the Afternators, the best fans in the world, the best possible movies.

“We chose to shoot in Eastern Europe because the Covid numbers are far lower than where we shot movies 1 & 2 and this safeguards our cast. We are also shooting the films back to back, which means some of the original cast were not available to return for various reasons, whether it be scheduling or other commitments.”