Hala Finley
{{Short description|American actress (born 2009)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Hala Finley
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
- {{Cite news|title=Celebrity birthdays for May 18|author=|date=May 18, 2017|work=The Times - Transcript|page=C2|quote=Comedian Tina Fey (30 Rock, Saturday Night Live) is 47. [...] Musician Jack Johnson is 42. Country singer David Nail is 38. Singer Darryl Allen of Mista is 37. [...] Actor Spencer Breslin is 25. Actress Hala Finley (Man With a Plan) is 8.|id={{ProQuest|1899691997}}}}
| birth_place = Gladstone, Missouri, U.S.Kelly, Dan (July 24, 2022). "She's a Born Star: 13-year-old from Kansa City area wows Hollywood". The Kansas City Star. pp. [https://www.newspapers.com/image/860725808/?clipping_id=164767407 1C], [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-kansas-city-star/164767300/ 2C]. Retrieved February 5, 2025. "Hala Finley might be only 13, but she is a Hollywood veteran [...] The Kansas City area native has a major role in the upcoming movie 'Paradise Highway.' [...] After moving with her family from Gladstone to Los Angeles when she was 6, Hala quickly broke into the business [...] She said her family’s move to California was mostly for the sake of her older brother, who wanted to learn cinematography. But she also already had an interest in acting, which she inherited from her mother. Somyia Finley has appeared in several movies, including a short filmed in Kansas City called 'Counter Parts [...] Hala made her screen debut in “Counter Parts” as a 4-year-old. Hala is of Libyan-American descent, and her name means 'halo around the moon' in Arabic."
| occupation = Actress
| years_active = 2014–present
}}
Hala Finley (born May 18, 2009) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in Man with a Plan (2016–2020) as Emme Burns and in We Can Be Heroes (2020) as Ojo.
Early life and career
Finley was born on May 18, 2009, in Gladstone, Missouri, the daughter of a Libyan mother, Somiya Finley. It was from her mother, who has had a modest screen career of her own, that Finley first acquired her interest in acting. Moreover, the two appeared together in Hala's film debut, the 2014 Kansas-City-filmed short, Counter Parts. The following year, the family relocated to Los Angeles, in furtherance not only of Finley's screen prospects and her mother's, but also those of her older brother, who wished to learn cinematography.
In Los Angeles, Finley appeared in print and TV commercials.{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}} In 2015, she played the lead role in Grammy. Gruesome Magazine said she was "adorable".{{cite web |last1=Perry |first1=Joseph |title="Grammy" (2015): A Little Girl Learns the Hard Way That Grandmother Knows Best |url=https://gruesomemagazine.com/2016/05/21/grammy-2015-little-girl-learns-hard-way-grandmother-knows-best |website=Gruesome Magazine |access-date=February 24, 2021 |date=May 21, 2016}} In 2016, at the age of seven, Finley appeared in Man with a Plan as Emme Burns, the youngest of Adam Burns's (Matt LeBlanc) children.{{cite web |last1=Adams |first1=Erik |title=Best-laid plans of CBS and men go awry for Matt LeBlanc, okay for Joel McHale |url=https://www.avclub.com/best-laid-plans-of-cbs-and-men-go-awry-for-matt-leblanc-1798189524 |website=The A.V. Club |access-date=February 24, 2021 |language=en-us |date=October 21, 2016}} In 2018, she played Jody Altmyer in Back Roads, for which she received a positive review. Nerdy Babble said she was "most surprising part of this entire experience", saying "she blew my expectations out of the water. ... [She was] adorable and endlessly endearing."{{cite web |title=Back Roads Book VS Movie |url=https://nerdybabble.com/2018/05/02/back-roads-book-vs-movie |website=Nerdy Babble |access-date=February 24, 2021 }}{{dead link|date=February 2021}} In February 2020, Finley was cast in Mandalay Pictures's Shelter.{{cite web |last1=Grater |first1=Tom |last2=Wiseman |first2=Andreas |title=Melissa Leo & Zazie Beetz To Star In 'Shelter' For Mandalay Pictures & Exec Producer Sam Rockwell |url=https://deadline.com/2020/02/melissa-leo-zazie-beetz-shelter-mandalay-pictures-sam-rockwell-1202867832 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225172235/https://deadline.com/2020/02/melissa-leo-zazie-beetz-shelter-mandalay-pictures-sam-rockwell-1202867832/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 25, 2020 |website=Deadline |access-date=February 24, 2021 |date=February 25, 2020}}
In September 2021, Finley joined Ben Affleck and Alice Braga in action-thriller film Hypnotic, reuniting with director Robert Rodriguez.{{cite news|url=https://deadline.com/2021/09/ben-affleck-robert-rodriguez-hypnotic-alice-braga-hala-finley-1234838634/|title='Hypnotic': Hala Finley Joins Ben Affleck & Alice Braga In Robert Rodriguez & Solstice Action-Thriller, Cameras Roll This Month In Texas |work=Deadline Hollywood |date=September 17, 2021}}
In 2022, she starred in Paradise Highway, which centers around human trafficking. Finley portrays Leila, who is trafficked in an attempt to save another character. The A.V. Club praised her performance, stating: "Finley eschews cuteness as much as possible, playing Leila almost as feral at the beginning—a writhing mass of gutteral screams and uncontrolled bodily functions, designed to be as distasteful as possible to would-be kidnappers."{{cite web |title=Paradise Highway charts a familiar route |url=https://www.avclub.com/paradise-highway-review-juliette-binoche-frank-grillo-1849188794 |website=The A.V. Club |access-date=August 5, 2022 |language=en-us |date=July 27, 2022}}
Filmography
=Film=
| class="wikitable sortable"
! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable"| Notes |
| 2014
| Counter Parts | Twins | Short film |
| 2015
| Grammy | Child | Short film |
| 2016
| Letters from a Father | Young Marie |
| 2018
| Jody Altmyer | |
| 2020
| Audrey (voice) | |
| 2020
| Ojo | |
| 2022
| Elizabeth "Blizzard" Dewerson | |
| 2022
| Leila | |
| 2023
| Hypnotic | Minnie | |
| 2024
| Echo Moon | |
=Television=
| class="wikitable sortable"
! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable"| Notes |
| 2016–2020
| Emme Burns | Main role; 69 episodes |
| 2018
| Harriet |
| 2019
| Teachers | Delia | Episode: "The Tell-Tale Cart" |
| 2022
| Ella Vaughn | Episode: "Remember Me Tomorrow" |
| 2024
|Hayna |Episode: "Can't Say I Remember No At Attin" |
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|6442629}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finley, Hala}}
Category:21st-century American actresses
Category:Actresses from Missouri
Category:American child actresses
Category:American film actresses
Category:American people of Libyan descent
Category:American television actresses