Who are Hollywood’s biggest stars from this locality?
This year’s Best of Atlanta category “Best Local Actor with a National Platform” prompts a discussion about who are the area’s biggest stars who’ve gone Hollywood.
<span style=”font-family: “Bookman Old Style"""""”>Before this year’s Best of Atlanta fades from our memories, I wanted to share the results of a discussion that came up regarding “Best Local Actor with a National Platform.” In the past, this category has often appeared on our ballot as “Best Local Actor Who Is Not Julia Roberts,” because whenever we’d ask our readers to vote for the “best local actress,” they’d pick the toothy Smyrna native – as they did this year. So frequently we make the distinction between local stage actors like Chris Kayser and Courtney Patterson vs. Hollywood television and movie stars with local backgrounds like Julia Roberts or “The Office’s” Ed Helms.
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<span style=”font-family: “Bookman Old Style"""""”>This year the obvious critic pick for “Best Local Actor with a National Platform” seemed to be Jack McBrayer, originally from Macon, who steals virtually his every scene on NBC’s Emmy-winning sitcom “30 Rock.” Plus, McBrayer plays a Georgian — albeit a hilariously stereotypical one — so he won extra points. A couple of months ago, when I was trying to narrow it down, I solicited suggestions of local actors on the national stage from the Atlanta Theatre Mailing List group, and received a great many suggestions. The term “local” is pretty loose, encompassing virtually all of Georgia and including actors who spent most, but not all, of their childhood here. A list follows the jump: if you can think of more who belong on the list, or would like to suggest that some be stuck, please offer suggestions: