Helena Howard

Breaking into the film world with a staggering performance in the independent drama "Madeline's Madeline" (2018), Helena Howard ascent to fame was particularly sudden. Howard grew up in New Jersey and New York nurturing an interest in acting that began to germinate at age three when she viewed her first movie-the action adventure film "The Mummy" (1999). She would passionately participate in school plays and youth theater as a youngster, and this ultimately led to her first professional role. Howard was performing a monologue from David Harrower's play "Blackbird" at a youth drama festival when director Josephine Decker, who was there as a guest judge, saw the young Howard's performance and was moved to tears. Decker eventually offered Howard the lead role in her upcoming film "Madeline's Madeline," about a teenage girl acting with a theater troupe, where she is encouraged by the group's director to mine the depths of her own mental illness and troubled family life for inspiration, a suggestion that ultimately yields strange and devastating results. Howard's performance earned overwhelming acclaim as the film moved through the festival circuit, and she soon signed on for her next role, appearing in the pilot for a young adult series on Amazon called "The Wilds" (Amazon, 2018-).