Abby McDonald is a British author who also writes under the pen name Abigail Haas. [1] She has written twelve novels. [2] [3] She was born in England and grew up in Sussex, going on to study Politics, Philosophy & Economics at Oxford University. [4] [5] [6] She now lives in Los Angeles. As well as writing under her real name and pen name Abby McDonald, she has written as Melody Grace, self-publishing her Beachwood Bay series. The series became a USA Today and international bestseller series before she revealed she was the author. [7] [8] [9] She is also a staff writer [10] for the Netflix series Bridgerton. [11]
Young Adult novels:
Adult novels:
104 'An Affair of Honor' (written by)
107 'Oceans Apart' (co-written with Jay Ross) [15]
205 'An Unthinkable Fate' (written by) [16]
Julie Pottinger, better known by her pen name, Julia Quinn, is an American author of historical romance fiction. Her novels have been translated into 41 languages and have appeared on The New York Times Bestseller List 19 times. She has been inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. Her Bridgerton series of novels has been adapted for Netflix by Shondaland under the title Bridgerton.
"Jingle Bells" is one of the most commonly sung Christmas songs in the world. It was written in 1850 by James Lord Pierpont at Simpson Tavern in Medford, Massachusetts. It was published under the title "The One Horse Open Sleigh" in September 1857. It has been claimed that it was originally written to be sung by a Sunday school choir for Thanksgiving, or as a drinking song. Although it has no original connection to christmas, it became associated with winter and Christmas music in the 1860s and 1870s, and it was featured in a variety of parlor song and college anthologies in the 1880s. It was first recorded in 1889 on an Edison cylinder; this recording, believed to be the first Christmas record, is lost, but an 1898 recording - also from Edison Records - survives.
Bob McDonald OC is a Canadian author and science journalist. He is the national science commentator for CBC Television and CBC News Network, and since 1992 has been the host of a weekly radio science show, Quirks & Quarks which draws approximately 800,000 listeners each week.
Shonda Lynn Rhimes, is an American television producer and screenwriter, and founder of the production company Shondaland. Inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame, Rhimes became known as the showrunner—creator, head writer, and executive producer—of the medical drama Grey's Anatomy (2005–present), its spin-off Private Practice (2007–2013) and the political thriller Scandal (2012–2018), becoming the first woman to create three television dramas that have achieved the 100 episode milestone.
James Lord Pierpont was an American songwriter, arranger, organist, Confederate States soldier, and composer. Pierpont wrote and composed "Jingle Bells" in 1857, originally titled "The One Horse Open Sleigh".
Megan Jo McDonald is an American children's literature author. Her most popular works is the series of books which concern a third grade girl named Judy Moody. McDonald has also written many picture books for younger children and continues to write. Her most recent work was the Julie Albright series of books for American Girl.
Abigail Leigh Spencer is an American actress. She began her career playing Rebecca Tyree on the ABC daytime television soap opera All My Children (1999–2001) before going on to star in the Lifetime crime drama series, Angela's Eyes (2006). From 2013 to 2016, Spencer starred as Amantha Holden in the SundanceTV drama series Rectify, for which she received a nomination for a Critics' Choice Television Award; she then starred as history professor Lucy Preston in the NBC science-fiction series Timeless.
Kirsten Prout is a Canadian actress. She is known for her lead roles in the ABC Family television shows, portraying Amanda Bloom in Kyle XY and Char Chamberlin in The Lying Game. Her first sizable break in film came in 2005, when she was cast as Abby Miller, a lead role opposite Jennifer Garner in Elektra. In 2007, Prout was nominated for Best Performance in a TV Series by the Young Artists Awards for Kyle XY. In 2010, Prout portrayed the vampire "Lucy" in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. She has guest starred in notable series including NCIS, Psych, Devious Maids,Ties That Bind and Dear White People. Prout is also known for her lead roles in the horror genre, as Alex Bell in the MTV film series My Super Psycho Sweet 16, Jewel McCaul in Joy Ride 3: Roadkill, and Sloane in the 2015 horror indie Even Lambs Have Teeth.
Emily Jordan Bear is an American composer, pianist, songwriter and singer. After beginning to play the piano and compose music as a small child, Bear made her professional piano debut at the Ravinia Festival at the age of five, the youngest performer ever to play there. She gained wider notice from a series of appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show beginning at the age of six. She has since played her own compositions and other works with orchestras and ensembles in North America, Europe and Asia, including appearances at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, the Montreux Jazz Festival and Jazz Open Stuttgart. She won two Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, the youngest person ever to win the award, and also won two Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Awards.
Phoebe Harriet Dynevor is an English actress. On television, she is best known for her role as Daphne, the fourth Bridgerton child, in the Netflix period drama Bridgerton (2020–2022). Her films include The Colour Room (2021), Bank of Dave (2023), and Fair Play (2023). She earned a BAFTA Rising Star Award nomination in 2024.
"TGS Hates Women" is the sixteenth episode of the fifth season of the American television comedy series 30 Rock, and the 96th overall episode of the series. It was written by co-executive producer Ron Weiner and directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller. The episode originally aired on NBC in the United States on February 24, 2011. Guest stars in this episode include Cristin Milioti and Chloë Grace Moretz.
Good Witch is a fantasy comedy drama series that is based on, and a continuation of, the television film series of the same name. Produced by Whizbang Films in association with ITV Studios and the Hallmark Channel, the series premiered on February 28, 2015, and ran for seven seasons, ending on July 25, 2021.
Sabrina Lois Bartlett is an English actress. She is known for her roles in the BBC One miniseries The Passing Bells (2014), the third series of the ITV drama Victoria (2019), and the first series of Knightfall (2017) on History, Bridgerton (2020) on Netflix, and The Larkins (2021), also on ITV.
McMillions is a documentary miniseries about the McDonald's Monopoly promotion scam that occurred between 1989 and 2001. Directed by James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte, the series details how the scam was perpetrated by Jerry Jacobson, the head of security for the agency that ran the promotion, and how he recruited a wide range of accomplices. The series premiered in the US on February 3, 2020, on HBO, and all episodes were made available in the UK on May 27, 2020, on Sky Documentaries. McMillions was nominated for five Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.
Connor Ryan Swindells is an English actor and model. He gained prominence through his role as Adam Groff in the Netflix comedy-drama Sex Education (2019–2023). He has since starred in the BBC One war drama SAS: Rogue Heroes (2022–present). His films include The Vanishing (2018), Emma (2020), Barbarians (2021), and Barbie (2023).
Bridgerton is an American historical romance television series created by Chris Van Dusen for Netflix. Based on the book series by Julia Quinn, it is Shondaland's first scripted show for Netflix. The series is set during the early 1800s in an alternative London Regency era, in which George III established racial equality and granted many people of African descent aristocratic titles due to the African heritage of his wife, Queen Charlotte. The viewer is taken to observe the highly competitive social season; where young marriageable nobility and gentry are introduced into society.
Family Law is a Canadian legal drama television series that premiered in Italy on Sky Investigation on July 6, 2021, and in Canada on Global on September 16, 2021.
Simone Ashwini Pillai, known professionally as Simone Ashley, is a British actress. She is known for her roles in the Netflix period drama Bridgerton (2022–present) and comedy-drama Sex Education (2019–2021).
The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical is a concept album by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear based on season 1 of the Netflix series Bridgerton. They developed the songs on the album on TikTok in early 2021 in a series of live sessions, during which they received and incorporated viewer feedback. Released in September 2021, the album charted on Billboard and elsewhere. It later won the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album and was the first Grammy winner to be developed on TikTok. Barlow and Bear became the youngest nominees and winners ever in their Grammy category.
Jingle Bell Heist is an upcoming American Christmas romantic comedy film directed by Michael Fimognari, written by Abby McDonald, and starring Olivia Holt and Connor Swindells.