Denyse Tontz

Denyse Tontz (born September 17, 1994[1]) is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. Tontz is known for her roles as Cortney Strathmore on Freeform's The Fosters, Miranda Montgomery on All My Children, Nikki Ortiz on Dog With a Blog, and most recently Elena on the 2017 Syfy series Incorporated and heroine Alicia Mendoza in the 2019 ABC summer series Grand Hotel. She is known in the music world for her single, "United States of Anxiety", debuted in 2016 by People.com.

Denyse Tontz
Born (1994-09-17) September 17, 1994
Occupation
  • Actress
  • singer
  • songwriter
Years active2006–present
Musical career
GenresPop/Acoustic
Instruments
Websitedenysetontz.com

Personal life

Tontz has a younger sister and a younger brother, and is of Irish, German, Spanish, Salvadorean, Canadian and Mayan descent.[1]

Career

Acting

Before she began her acting career, Tontz was a child model[2] and the face of Barbie couture in the UK.[3] Tontz made her first appearance on television, appearing on the show E-Ring as Princess Gabrielle. In 2007, she portrayed Alice Keefe in the Nickelodeon movie The Last Day of Summer. In 2008, she was cast as Meagan Todd in the movie Dog Gone along with Luke Benward and French Stewart. Tontz began recurring on Big Time Rush in 2009 playing the role of Jennifer Woods.[2][4] Tontz revealed on August 6, 2012, that Nickelodeon had renewed Big Time Rush for a 13-episode fourth season, a development that was later independently confirmed.[5]

In November 2012 Tontz appeared on the Disney Channel sitcom Dog with a Blog, playing Avery's Central American neighbor and Tyler's crush, Nikki. Nikki is sweet and talented but also initially quite naïve, and her pomeranian Evita becomes the object of Stan's affection.[2][6] It was later announced that Tontz's character would begin to be recurring.[2]

In early 2013 it was revealed that Tontz would be playing Miranda Montgomery in daytime drama All My Children.[2][7] The first appearance of Tontz as Miranda Montgomery was on the April 29, 2013 premiere episode of All My Children.[8][9] On November 11, 2013, it was announced that Prospect Park had closed production and canceled the series again. Tontz later stated that although she had fun, soaps were just not her cup of tea.[10][11]

In July 2015, Deadline Hollywood announced that Tontz was cast as a series regular in the USA pilot, Paradise Pictures, written and executive produced by Suits writer Rick Muirragui and executive produced by Suits creator/executive producer Aaron Korsh. The show was a period drama revolving around ambitious people striving to get to the top in 1940s Hollywood, and Tontz played a bright-eyed aspiring actress named Luciana from Marfa, Texas.[12] The show did not go to series.[13]

In 2016, it was announced that Tontz would join Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's Syfy thriller, Incorporated, as a series regular, alongside Sean Teale, Allison Miller, Dennis Haysbert and Julia Ormond. Tontz plays Elena, the love of Ben Larson's (Teale) life, who is forced to sell herself into servitude in order to pay off her family's debts. Created by David and Alex Pastor, the show is set in a distant future where corporations have unlimited power.[12]

Since 2019, Tontz has starred as Alicia Mendoza on the ABC drama Grand Hotel.[14]

Music

In 2012, Tontz released the video for her first single, "Better Than Nothing" featuring Thomas Hrvatin, via YouTube. Shot on an iPhone 4S, the song features Tontz's quirky, playful style of writing. "Better Than Nothing" was also featured on the March 24, 2013 episode of The Mentalist.[15][16]

In June 2014, repped by music industry powerhouse Danny Goldberg of GoldVE, Tontz won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Song for a Drama Series for "Parachute", an original song she wrote for All My Children.[17][18]

She released her track "Why" on May 5, 2015, her song and video "Go", on July 4, 2015, and most recently "United States of Anxiety", on July 22, 2016.[19]

Filmography
Film and television roles
Year Title Role Notes
2006 E-Ring Princess Gabrielle Episode: "The Two Princes"
2007 The Last Day of Summer Alice Keefe Film
2008 Dog Gone Meagan Todd Film
2009 The Perfect Sleep Young Porphyria Film
2009–2013 Big Time Rush Jennifer Woods Recurring role, 21 episodes
2011 The Nine Lives of Chloe King Vanessa Episode: "Responsible"
2011 I Hate My Teenage Daughter Snotty Girl Episode: Pilot
2012 Shake It Up Gloria Episode: "Weird It Up"
2012–2013 Pair of Kings Mary Ann/Tarantula Girl Episodes: "The New King, Part 2: The Bro-fessor and Mary Ann", "Meet the Parent"
2012–2014 Dog with a Blog Nikki Ortiz Recurring role
2013 All My Children Miranda Montgomery Series regular
2014 Workaholics Kim Episode: "Beer Heist"
2014 Melissa & Joey Layla Episode: "Accidents Will Happen"
2014 Bones Alice Kelly Episode: "The Geek In The Guck"
2015 Earthfall Rachel Lannon Television movie
2015 Paradise Pictures Luciana Delgado Unsold television pilot[20]
2016–2017 The Fosters Cortney Strathmore Recurring role, 21 episodes[21]
2016–2017 Incorporated Elena Main role[12]
2019 Grand Hotel Alicia Mendoza Main role[14]

Discography
  • "Better Than Nothing" (feat. Thomas Hrvatin)
  • "Use It"
  • "Mr. Hipster"
  • "Why" (track only)
  • "Go"

Music videos
Year Title Director
2012 "Better Than Nothing" N/A
gollark: Er, in skynet?
gollark: Also also also, I had a good idea: federation! Allow the skynet server to exchange data with other ones it trusts.
gollark: Also also, it's a *modem* replacement, rednet is marginally higher-level.
gollark: I think Ale32bit *also* did, though his was probably made after skynet.
gollark: `skynet.logs()` in the lua client, `{"type": "log"}` in the raw JSON protocol.

References
  1. "miranda rights". Soap Opera Digest. July 15, 2013. p. 45.
  2. Kroll, Dan J (February 25, 2013). "Denyse Tontz cast as AMC's Miranda Montgomery: Other Tontz news". Soapcentral. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
  3. "Official Denyse Tontz's website - Bio". DenyseTontz.com.
  4. "Nickelodeon Star, Denyse Tontz From Big Time Rush Releases First Single And Video". Top40-Charts.com. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
  5. "Nickelodeon Greenlights Fourth Season of Hit Musical Comedy Series Big Time Rush". TV by the Numbers. August 6, 2012. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
  6. "Watch Dog with a Blog Season 1 Episode 4 Wingstan". OVGuide.com. Archived from the original on January 8, 2013. Retrieved April 15, 2013.
  7. Lewis, Errol (February 25, 2013). "EXCLUSIVE! Jordan Lane Price NOT Miranda Montgomery; Soap Casts Denyse Tontz in Role". Soap Opera Network. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  8. O'Connell, Michael (March 11, 2013). "All My Children and One Life to Live Set Online Premiere Date". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
  9. "Denyse-Tontz.com "All My Children" Premiere". Denyse Tontz.
  10. Stanhope, Kate (November 11, 2013). "All My Children Dead (Again), Cast Members Say". TV Guide. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  11. "All My Children Canceled: Online Soap Not Returning". HuffPost. November 12, 2013. Retrieved November 12, 2013.
  12. Petski, Denise (August 3, 2016). "Incorporated: Denyse Tontz Joins Syfy Thriller From Matt Damon & Ben Affleck". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
  13. "Hollywood Drama Paradise Pictures Passed Over at USA, Being Shopped Elsewhere". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
  14. Petski, Denise (March 7, 2018). "Grand Hotel: Denyse Tontz to Star in ABC Drama Pilot". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved May 11, 2018.
  15. Watts, Clark. "The Mutli Talented Denyse Tontz is Electrifying the Industry". CelebrityJabber. Retrieved September 26, 2012.
  16. ""The Mentalist" (featuring "Better Than Nothing")". DenyseTontz.com. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
  17. "'Sesame Street,' 'Ellen DeGeneres' Lead Daytime Emmy Creative Arts Winners (FULL LIST)". Variety. June 21, 2014. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
  18. Clifford, Kambra (June 21, 2014). "And the 41st Annual Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Award Winners Are..." soapoperanetwork.com. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
  19. "Denyse Tontz: Get a First Listen at Her New Single". People. July 22, 2016. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
  20. Goldberg, Lesley (December 3, 2015). "Hollywood Drama 'Paradise Pictures' Passed Over at USA, Being Shopped Elsewhere". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
  21. "The Fosters Season 4 Recap: 4.6: Justify". gossipandgab.com. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
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