It’s springtime, and in a little bit we’re going to talk about tulips. But before that, let’s be clear that the title of this post does not contain a typo. These actors “ad up” because they are all, or have all been, prominent in television advertising.
Clicking on the links here doesn’t result in any compensation for Actors Under the Stars; but if you don’t click on the links to the commercials as you read along, you will miss some of the fun!
1. Take Chris Witaske, pictured here. Even if you knew that the actor’s name is Chris Witaske, you would have to be exceptionally attentive to have noticed that the guy he portrays as a member of the frustrating turning-into-their-parents ensemble in so many Progressive Insurance ad spots actually has a character name: Tom Prichard. “I know every time those air,” Witaske said in a jovial interview in Chicago last year on WGN News, “because my dad texts me.” When the interviewer asked, “Are you playing your dad,” Chris answered through a laughing smile, “Yeah, I am literally just doing an impression of Ray Witaske.”
He brings that Second City Theater savvy to every role he plays, having gotten his start at an early age in the Chicago-based comedy arena and is also one of the writers and executive producers of the 16-episode animated series Chicago Party Aunt (2021-2022). With a run in the Netflix comedy series Free Bert, and his role as Pete (2022-2025) in the also Chicago-based workplace drama The Bear, Witaske is memorable for various episodic television work and supporting roles in such films as What Men Want, and The Wrong Missy.
But, as I mentioned, it’s springtime. Tulip time. So, AutS wants to direct your attention to a less than 2-minute segment of the 2025 psychological thriller, Holland. Chris Witaske adds to the tension in the uneven production in his refreshing manner as an offhandedly brash, humorously annoying uniformed Holland, Michigan cop. If you wouldn’t mind – or might even enjoy – being jostled through a quirky, uneven suspense film that is seasoned with wry humor, stars Nicole Kidman and is, in my opinion, well-crafted but ultimately grating and distasteful, those 2 minutes of Witaske are worth the cinematic trip.
The movie uses the annual Tulip Time festival in Holland, MI as the mechanism that steers the story. (This year, the real-life festival takes place May 1 thru May 10, in case you’re interested.) I wasn’t alone in my less than stellar assessment of the production; it did not score well with the pro critics, and Holland, MI residents tended to be disappointed and unkind on Facebook. One local summed it up with, “It sucked,” while another commented, “…absolutely horrible.” Likewise horrified, another posted, “[I]t’s as if they totally set out to destroy the reputation of the city.” I doubt that the filmmakers, in their artistic quests, were much concerned with the reputation of the city nor, perhaps, in getting the regional accent right. In bandying posts about lack of attention to the Michigan accent, one commentor mentioned, “The cop and the waitress nailed it pretty close.” That’s our Chris Witaske. Always on point.
Holland is available with subscription on Prime Video. Witaske’s short, gripping romp occurs about 31 minutes into the film.
2. Possibly you know Melanie Paxson as Fairy Godmother in the spectacular, on-going Descendants Disney teen fantasy films and TV series. Perhaps you recognize her from her supporting role in the multi award winning bio-comedy-drama Saving Mr. Banks (2013) or remember her from the recent Amazon Prime comedy series Dealbreakers. Or maybe you recall her face in numerous TV ad spots for various products and retailers. Like Chris Witaske, Paxson also received early training at Second City in Chicago. Even if you know her from all the aforementioned places do you realize that this effortlessly chameleon-like actor is the same steamed woman who snatches the mobile from her husband’s hand around 3AM in a classic television commercial?
She pierces her voice into his cell phone, expecting to hear an answer from some voluptuous chippy – or the click of a hangup – and sarcastically asks, “What are you wearing, Jake from State Farm?” First spoken in 2011, that line, thanks to Paxson’s impeccable timing and the comedic chemistry between her and character actor Justin Campbell as the husband, has become a hallmark in advertising history.
3. It was argued to me that Keegan-Michael Key is too name-recognizable to be included at Actors Under the Stars because of the eponymous Comedy Central sketch series Key and Peele; then others said, “Who and who?” Fame is subjective and subject to change.
(Said Peele, however – Jordan Peele – is clearly a Hollywood darling, having written and directed the critically revered film Get Out (2017), than followed up with a series of celebrated successes, and produced and hosted a revival of the Twilight Zone which ran 2019-2020 on Paramount+.)
Key’s handsome visage is often hidden behind a lot of vocal work in animated features such as the voice of Toad in the Mario Bros. movies, but his face is quite memorable in a number of supporting roles, e.g. the jaunty, dubious Mayor Tilman in season 5 of Only Murders in the Building. He was appealing and heartwarming as a dad trying to find relatable territory with his teenage daughter in a series of PSAs on talking to your kids about drug and alcohol use. Currently, Key appears familiarly in the Choice Hotels commercials.
He doesn’t just appear in the ads, he also co-wrote the latest Choice ad campaign along with his wife, Elle Key, and the McKinney creative agency.
His versatility is unstoppable as proven by a feature in Newsbreak which touts Key as, “fast becoming TV’s most popular pitchman.” In his latest foray, a new spot for Ore-Ida Tater Tots, he portrays an assortment of characters which include an aged admiral and a blond Swede in traditional Alpine dress. Newsbreak related Key’s evaluation that, “A commercial can sometimes be more ubiquitous than, maybe, a little indie film, or a TV show that’s on a streamer, among the thousands of TV shows.” Well…that may be a good thing for an actor, but it’s not necessarily a good thing for viewers. Unless an ad is as entertaining as the ones showcased here – and not many are – we all know that omnipresence and repetition can be irritating.
Key was apparently offered a spit bucket so he could dispose of some of the many tater tots he had to chew during the filming of the ad, and he refused it. “It’s a tater tot for crying out loud,” Newsbreak reports him as saying. “I’m going to eat every single one of them!”
4. Last – and least in on-screen time but certainly not in appeal – is an actress with the baby-face of a brown bisque doll with one guileless dimple. Quancetia Hamilton is nowhere near a household name and definitely not too name recognizable to be here. Most of this Canadian’s 68 screen appearances over the last 30 years, or so, are for postage-stamp sized roles. Nevertheless, hers is one of the most familiar of faces to television viewers due to her prominence as Alice in the ridiculously long-running Gain TV commercial titled, “Fairy Godmother.” (Yes, many commercials do have titles just like movies, songs, plays or other works.) The ad premiered in July 2018 and was only fairly recently replaced by new Gain spots, destined never to be as iconic.
Hamilton appears in an episode of the engaging (judging by the trailers) new 6-part comedy series I’m Also Here which is totally Ontario centric. Rather than manipulating a locale to use as the kernel of a story as Holland did, I’m Also Here embraces, penetrates, and personalizes it. But, for now, you can only watch it if you have Bell Fibe TV.
In an interview for The Middle Passage podcast in 2013, Quancetia said that she grew up in downtown Toronto as the daughter of a mom who was, “a single parent, a wonderful woman, and just a very strong figure.” She probably channels that into some of her roles like her brief portrayal of legendary Academy Award winner Hattie MacDaniel. That was in Bojangles back in 2001, and the wait for her tidbit of a scene is longer than the wait for Chris Witaske’s cop scenes in Holland. However, Bojangles is a credible, intimate biopic about dazzling tap dancer Bill Robinson, who performed so famously with Shirley Temple, so there is a lot to enjoy, absorb, and ponder along the way. It streams, free with ads, on Tubi. Some of those ads are bound to be, to use Keegan-Michael Key’s word, “ubiquitous.”
~FW
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