'Annie Live!' Finds Its Annie: Meet Celina Smith!

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentChile’s Matías Bize, the multi-prized director of “In the Bed,” “The Life of Fish” and “The Memory of Water,” is attached to direct “The Stolen Kids” (“Niños de Contrabando”), a family drama straddling Chile and Europe set up at María Wood Producciones and MegaMedia, the latter part-owned by Discovery Networks Latin America.A true-life inspired series, “The Stolen Kids” will be presented on Tuesday at Pamplona’s Conecta Fiction, the Europe-Latin

Emmy Award nominee Bernadette Peters fully supports the casting of young Black actress Celina Smithto lead NBC’s Annie Live!, a musical TV special with Smith portraying little orphan Annie.

Celina Smith is set to play Annie in NBC’s upcoming Annie Live! holiday production.

Danielle Turchiano Senior Features Editor, TVNBC’s “Annie Live!” has booked Jane Krakowski as Lily St. Regis.Krakowski reunites with her “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” co-star Tituss Burgess in this live holiday musical, as she will play the sassy and sticky-fingered partner of his swindler, Rooster Hannigan.

Jane Krakowski is joining NBC’s Annie Live! in the role of the duplicitous Lily St. Regis, a part that will pair the actress with her Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt co-star Tituss Burgess.

A star is born. NBC has announced Celina Smith will play the titular role in their live production of Annie.

Newcomer Celina Smith, who is 12 years old, has landed the role of Annie in NBC’s upcoming Annie Live musical!

Tituss Burgess as Rooster. The last high-profile African-American actress to be cast as “Annie” was Oscar-nominated Quvenzhané Wallis for a 2014 film that also starred Cameron Diaz as Miss Hannigan and Jamie Foxx as Daddy Warbucks. Unfortunately — and all too predictably — there was a racist backlash among some “Annie” fans over the fact that the famous orphan was no longer a freckled redhead, as portrayed by Andrea McArdle in the 1977 Broadway musical. “So this #Annie movie is all wrong.

Celina Smith is set to play Annie in NBC’s upcoming “Annie Live!” holiday production.

NBC’s “Annie Live” has found its Annie in Hollywood newcomer Celina Smith, who landed the hard-knock role in the upcoming holiday production after a nationwide search, the broadcast network revealed Tuesday. Per NBC, “Already a triple threat at the age of 12, Smith will light up center stage with an all-star ensemble that includes Taraji P.

Twelve-year-old Celina Smith, a cast member of Tyler Perry’s Young Dylan on Nickelodeon, has landed the title role of NBC’s Annie Live!, the upcoming holiday production of the classic Broadway musical.

Pussycat Dolls star Nicole Scherzinger seems to be the latest celebrity to fancy themselves a shorter hairstyle and go for the chop, ditching her signature long raven tresses in favour of a mid-length ‘do. Posing in a fluffy bathrobe with a super glam makeup look, the 43-year-old songstress took to Instagram to share her newly chopped locks, which now skim her shoulders in a long bob, also known as a lob.

Tituss Burgess is the latest star to join the cast of Annie Live!

Taraji P. Henson will play Miss Hannigan.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt alum Tituss Burgess has joined the cast of NBC’s Annie Live! musical event.