‘Cooking Up Christmas’: Meet Meagan Holder, Lamman Rucker, Jen Harper and the rest of the cast of the OWN film
It’s not just Lifetime and Hallmark that bring us mushy and gooey Christmas films. OWN -- the Oprah Winfrey Network -- has its own line of holiday films. And one of them is ‘Cooking Up Christmas’. The film follows Chloe, an Atlanta-based chef at a fine dining restaurant who gets fired just weeks before Christmas and reluctantly takes a job with pro baseball player Donovan Jackson, who is a single dad of three needing a live-in-chef to get him through the holidays with the kids.
Chloe only takes the job in order to save up enough capital to live out her dream of opening her own restaurant, but soon finds herself caught up in the ups and downs of the Jacksons encounter during her residency. Throughout the holiday season in the Jackson household, the importance of family and Chloe’s good Southern cooking are two constants that remain. As Christmas comes to an end, Chloe discovers that her lifelong dream might finally come true... and that her heart has a mind of its own.
Let’s take a look at the cast members in this holiday flick.
Meagan Holder as Chloe
The 36-year-old American television actor is best known for portraying Kelly Bowers on the comedy-drama series ‘Born Again Virgin’, Evelyn Sanders in drama series ‘Pitch’, Noelle Jackson in the drama series ‘Unreal’, Claudine on the crime-drama series ‘Ringer’, and Darby Conrad on the ABC Family series ‘Make It or Break It’. She has also made appearances in television shows such as ‘90210’, ‘Victorious’, and ‘Criminal Minds’.
Lamman Rucker as Donovon Jackson
The 49-year-old American actor is best known for his roles in soap operas like ‘As the World Turns’ and ‘All My Children’, and films like ‘Why Did I Get Married?’, ‘Why Did I Get Married Too?’, and ‘Meet the Browns’. He found acclaim with his role as Jacob Greenleaf in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama series, ‘Greenleaf’.
Jen Harper as Dolores
The American actor is best known for her performances in ‘The Vampire Diaries’, ‘Kill The Messenger’, ‘Drop Dead Diva’, ‘Survivor's Remorse’, ‘Bound 2014’. She also is known for her roles in ‘Born Again Virgins’, ‘Here We Go Again’, and ‘Greenleaf’.
Giovonnie Samuels as April
The 35-year-old American actor and voice artist is best known for her role as Nia Moseby in ‘The Suite Life of Zack & Cody’, and for being a series regular on ‘All That’. Her other notable TV credits include ‘Fatherhood’, ‘Mr. Box Office’, and ‘You're the Worst’.
LaParee Young as Buck
The American stage and television actor has performed notably in films and shows like ‘We Are Marshall’, ‘Trois III’, ‘Three Can Play That Game’, ‘Diary of a Mad Black Woman’, ‘Daddy’s Little Girls’, ‘Van Wilder III’, ‘The Preacher’s Kid’, ‘Fab Five Cheerleader Scandal’, ‘The Way Home’, ‘The Blind Side’, ‘Footloose’, ‘Firelight’, ‘The Game’, ‘Anchorman II’, ‘Superfly’, and more. As a theater artist, he’s performed in ‘The Hot Mikado’, ‘Chess’, ‘A Christmas Carol’, ‘Piano Lesson’, ‘Tambourines to Glory’, among several others.
‘Cooking Up Christmas’ premieres on December 15 at 9 pm ET/PT only on OWN.