ROLLERS - JOHNNY RAY GILL, KEVIN BIGLEY and KATE COBB INTERVIEWS

ROLLERS a film about wanting to hold on to the past is now available to rent and own on North American digital HD internet, cable and satellite platforms.

 Rollers stars Johnny Ray Gill as Rufus Paisley, a closet alcoholic and everything he loves is smashed together into one place: a beloved nightclub called, Rollers. He gave up a promising career as a musician in order to keep it alive, but the historic venue, once owned by his parents, is in trouble and he's running out of ways to save it, and himself. His friends urge him to move on, but can he?

Written and directed by Isaiah Smallman, ROLLERS stars Johnny Ray Gill, Kevin Bigley, Vicky Jeudy, Kate Cobb, Joel Allen, and Spencer Rayshon Stevenson. ROLLERS was produced by Smallman and Tara Ansley, executive produced by Tiffany Boyle, Bryce McGuire, Elsa Ramo, and Eric Costello, associate produced by Elizabeth Alcorn and co-produced by Rylan Soref. 

Kevin Bigley is from Northern California and graduated from DePaul’s theater program in 2009. Kevin is a series regular on the Greg Daniels' sitcom UPLOAD, which just wrapped shooting on its second season. He’s been featured in Amazon's Undone, Netflix's  Bojack Horseman, Fox’s The Moody’s, HBO's Here & Now, and was a series regular in the Denis Leary produced sitcom Sirens which ran two seasons. Also a writer of fiction, his debut novel COMAVILLE was released from Clash Books in March of last year, and has a feature in development with the newly harolded production company Pinky Promise. He moved to Los Angeles in 2010 with his wife, fellow alum Kate Cobb, where they began a production company, BigCob Productions, which produced sketches exclusively with FunnyOrDie that garnered hundreds of thousands of views. Their company has developed and pitched with networks, resulting in a digital series, Parked, which debuted at ITVFest in Vermont and premiered on Amazon in the spring of 2018. They are currently developing their first feature.

Kate Cobb hails from Chicago, where she graduated from DePaul University’s Theatre School in 2010. She can be seen in recurring and guest roles on many television shows including Shameless, Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy, Castle, and recurred on the unreleased David Fincher series for HBO, Videosyncrasy. She can also be seen in the feature film Operator which debuted at SXSW in 2018. This year she guest starred on NBC’s New Amsterdam, and starred in a feature with Blumhouse called The Current Occupant which is part season 2 of the HULU film series Into The Dark. Kate is also attending UCLA’s Directing program and recently had one of her short films How to Write a Song Like Joni Mitchell accepted into the We Are Films festival in New York, and is developing another short, Dandelions, to be filmed this summer. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and fellow actor Kevin Bigley. Together they founded BigCob Productions in 2012, which released a digital series PARKED on Amazon Prime in 2018.

Johnny Ray Gill is an award-winning actor, filmmaker, & poet best known for portraying ‘Kerwin’ on the critically acclaimed Sundance series RECTIFY, and ‘Sam’ on WGN America’s universally celebrated UNDERGROUND. He’s also known for the quirky ‘Gustav’ on CBS’ BRAINDEAD opposite Mary Elizabeth Winstead and the community protector 'Damien Winslow' on NBC’s HARRY’S LAW opposite Kathy Bates. He’s also appeared in episodes of SNOWFALL, TRUE BLOOD, CHICAGO PD, NCIS, and is the voice of 'Hogrider' in Supercell’s worldwide hit CLASH OF CLANS. In the last year, Johnny Ray starred in two shorts that performed very well on the festival circuit, one he directed called DVD & CHILL and the other SOMETIMES I FEEL, shot in London and directed by Bernard Kordieh. Most notably the shorts screened at Blackstar, Martha's Vineyard African American, Pan African, Halifax film festivals, and Indie Short Awards Cannes respectively. Johnny Ray’s directorial debut MY TURTLE’S NAME IS DUDLEY won best narrative short at the Haydenfilms Online film festival in conjunction with HollyShorts while screening at the Hollywood Black film festival amongst others. His second short PAS DE RESTES won best short at Portland and Greenlens Environmental film festivals. You can look forward to Johnny Ray starring in Isaiah Smallman’s new feature comedy ROLLERS. He also executive produced Doris Tääker’s short narrative ANDROS. That film is an official selection of the Encounters and Korea Queer film festivals and competed in the VI Short Film Cup. Johnny Ray was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, and received his BA in filmmaking from Temple University and his MFA in theatre from The University of California, San Diego with the La Jolla Playhouse. He currently resides in Los Angeles where he was riding out the pandemic doing therapy, tending to his a garden, boxing, working on two collections of poetry, doing virtual summits for black creatives, career days for youth, and working on pitches and treatments for films he's going to bring through his production banner First Flock Pictures.

I spoke with Johnny Ray Gill, and real-life married couple Kevin Bigley and Kate Cobb about working on the film. ( Both interviews can be watched in the playlist below)