Best actors from ECHL South Division cities

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of a series in which a Pucks and Rec writer will select the top contemporary entertainment citizen of every city in a select minor-league hockey division. The seven markets comprising the ECHL South Division are this week’s focus. All filmography and award information is courtesy of the Internet Movie Database.

Atlanta: Julia Roberts
Contrary to their dateline, the Gladiators still play in the Gwinnett County town of Duluth. But the lone Duluth native with an IMDB bio, Tom Hand, has not notched a new acting credit since 1999. With that in mind, we will bend the rules just as the Gladiators stretch the truth and cover the Atlanta metropolitan area.

Roberts was born and raised in the suburb of Smyrna, then went to the heart of the city to attend Georgia State. She ultimately moved out of state, but did not waste time fostering a consistent career.

As of this year, she has landed 20 People’s Choice nominations since 1991. She has come out on top 10 times, and never gone more than five years without consideration. Roberts has also made fresh additions to her Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe candidacy logs as recently as 2014.

Florida (Estero/Fort Meyers): Haley Bennett
The Fort Meyers native turned 19 one month before her first film, 2007’s Music & Lyrics, hit theaters.

Now nearing 30, Bennett has logged 19 full-length feature credits plus three short films and one TV movie. Her starring part in 2014’s Kristy yielded an iHorror nomination.

Bennett has since appeared in The Magnificent Seven and The Girl on the Train, among others.

Greenville: Danielle Brooks
Fun fact: Brooks was born in a defunct ECHL South Division town, Augusta, Ga. But she spent the bulk of her upbringing (and found her passion) in the Swamp Rabbits’ city. This past spring, she drew a thunderous ovation upon returning for a speaking engagement at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities.

Before that, Brooks was 12 years old when Greenville’s former team, the Grrrowl, won the 2002 Kelly Cup. She is now part of a winning team in her own field. The cast of Orange Is the New Black is the Screen Actors Guild’s three-time reigning comedy ensemble champion.

Individually, Brooks’ role as Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson has earned a 2014 Gold Derby and 2016 Image nomination.

Jacksonville: Patrika Darbo
While the limited horror-comedy series Acting Dead drew ample accolades from not-so-mainstream guilds, one individual cast member nabbed an Emmy.

For her part, Darbo walked away with a Primetime prize for acting in a short-form comedy or drama in 2016. She sandwiched that banner year with two Indie Series Awards for her guest appearances on Amazon Prime’s The Bay.

Norfolk: Patrick Wilson
Wilson is the first suggested match to drop down when you start querying the first name “Patrick” on IMDB. That alone is an impressive feat, given his company of a Stewart, a Dempsey and the late Swayze.

The Girls and Fargo veteran has been nominated by the Critics Choice and Gold Derby guilds for both programs. For the latter, he was also up for a Golden Globe and a Saturn last year.

With those shows behind him, Wilson is looking at a focal shift back to movies in 2018. He is working opposite Liam Neeson in The Commuter and Nicole Kidman and Willem Dafoe in Aquaman.

Orlando: Mandy Moore
Native son Wesley Snipes is a worthy honorable mention. But Moore, who moved to Orlando during her upbringing, has a better position at the showbiz forefront right now.

For her role as Rebecca Pearson on This Is Us, Moore has fetched her first Golden Globe and People’s Choice nomination this year. She also returned to the MTV Movie + TV ballot after a 15-year absence.

Another drought, namely Moore’s five-year absence from the big screen, ended in 2017. She will splash it further with 2018’s release of the Wreck-It Ralph sequel. The animated film will give her Rapunzel character from Tangled another go-round.

South Carolina (North Charleston): Gail Elaine Chord
Chord takes this honor by default, being the only past or present North Charleston resident with any IMDB mentions. Chord was a regular on the YouTube series The Drunken Peasants from 2014 to 2016, and had a guest spot on Tosh.0 last year.