Jailed actor's daughter lands first big role
Jailed Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman’s daughter isn’t letting the college admissions scandal ruin her dreams of becoming a Hollywood actor, having landed her first big role to date.
Sophia Macy has been cast in the second season of Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone reboot, with the 19-year-old set to appear in an episode titled “Among the Untrodden”.
The recent high school graduate currently has just two credits to her name: a bit part in the 2017 indie film The Layover and a role in a short film, Aurora.
Sophia shared the exciting news on her Instagram account on Monday, saying she had “been wanting to talk about this for a MINUTE!”
She also called herself “grateful” for getting to work with co-star British actor Abbie Hern. Billy Porter, Tony Hale, Chris Meloni and Jenna Elfman will also appear in the series.
Sophia posted some of the congratulatory messages she received for the casting, including a funny one from her younger sister, Georgia Macy, 17.
College admissions scandal
Sophia’s role comes almost a year after her mother’s involvement in the now-infamous college admissions scandal was exposed.
In March 2019, Golden Globe winner Felicity was arrested by the FBI for paying corrupt college admissions expert William ‘Rick’ Singer US$15,000 to boost her elder daughter’s SAT scores two years earlier.
Felicity pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 14 days in California’s Federal Correctional Institution which she has since served.
She was also given a one-year supervised release and ordered to do 250 hours of community service and pay a US$30,000 fine for mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.
According to the FBI, Sophia had no idea that her mother had her score fixed. Felicity has since issued a public apology to her daughter, who she said has a learning disability.
In a letter to the judge in her case, Felicity explained that her daughter was “passionate about majoring in theatre” but struggled with maths.
In a letter her husband, Shameless star William H. Macy wrote to the judge on his wife’s behalf, he revealed that “Sophia has certainly paid the dearest price” in the scandal.
He recalled how the teen’s unnamed dream college - one that “ironically doesn’t require SAT scores” - rescinded its invitation to audition for its theatre program after her mother’s arrest, leaving Sophia in hysterics.
After the devastation of that day, Sophia took a gap year from college is now
”slowly regaining her equilibrium and getting on with her life,” according to her father.
Meanwhile, high school senior Georgia - for whom Felicity considered running the scheme again but changed her mind - was recently accepted at Vassar, a private college in New York.
And Felicity appears to be getting on with her life as well. Unlike fellow actor Lori Loughlin who is still facing legal drama for her own involvement in the college admissions scandal, the disgraced star is apparently still highly-sought after.
Crisis PR expert Howard Bragman recently told Yahoo Entertainment he knows producers who ‘adore’ the Academy Award-nominee and one hundred per cent want “to hire her and who are looking for the right role for her”.
Additional reporting by Suzy Byrne.
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