Why Becca From Hocus Pocus 2 Looks So Familiar
It's time for some more Sanderson Sister shenanigans, witches. "Hocus Pocus 2" is set to hit Disney + on September 28, ready and able to carry you through the spooky season. The film takes place 29 years after the Sanderson Sisters wreaked havoc on Salem, Massachusetts back in 1993, thanks to the Dennison siblings (Thora Birch and Omari Katz) and their friend Allison (Vinessa Shaw). Dani (Birch), Allison, and Max (Katz) helped the sisters escape their eternal prison unwittingly, and a new group of teenagers seems to have made the same mistake.
Best friends Becca (Whitney Peak) and Izzy (Belissa Escobedo) are aspiring witches who spend a lot of time hanging out at the Old Salem Magic Shoppe. Gilbert (Sam Richardson), the place's proprietor, gives Izzy and Becca a Black Flame Candle ahead of Becca's 16th birthday, not knowing about its magical properties. The girls make the mistake of lighting it on All Hallow's Eve near the cemetery where the Sandersons were vanquished in the first movie. With Winnie (Bette Midler), Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker), and Mary (Kathy Najimy) once again on the loose and determined to get a foothold in the world of the living by stealing the girls' souls, Becca and Izzyfind that they must team up with Cassie Traske (Lilia Buckingham), an old friend who has drifted out of their social circle, and the recently-resurrected William "Billy" Butcherson (Doug Jones) to put the Sandersons back where they belong.
Whitney Peak, the actor who portrays Becca, will be familiar to anyone who loves teen and tween dramas of all sorts. This is why she looks so familiar.
Whitney Peak took her first bow for Hallmark
Whitney Peak entered the acting world in 2017 (per her IMDb) at the age of 14, but it didn't take her long to land her first minor role. She has dialogue in the Hallmark film "Campfire Kisses," which features Danica McKellar as a math teacher named Dana Henderson. Dana overprotects her son, Arthur (Dylan Kingwell), who's desperately trying to break out of his shell and ask a girl he has a crush on out to an upcoming spring dance. When Arthur protests Dana's tendency to shelter him, she decides to be bold with her life and take them both out camping during Spring Break. While there, they meet Steve (Paul Greene) and Lacey Reynolds (Ali Skovbye), a father-daughter duo going through similar travails. Together, the two families learn how to get over their fears and bitterness.
Peak plays Gillian, a student of Dana's who can be seen in an early scene. She also pops up again during the climactic dance which concludes the film.
She captivated as Sabrina's Judith
Whitney Peak's next big role was in Netflix's "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina." She appears as Judith Blackwood in the show. The daughter of Lady Constance Blackwood (Alvina August) and her husband Faustus (Richard Coyle), Judith is spirited away from her parents at birth by Zelda Spellman (Miranda Otto), who temporarily names her Leticia. Since Faustus was expecting twin boys and Zelda fears something terrible will happen to Judith at the hands of her father due to her gender and in light of her mother's death, Zelda lies and tells Faustace that Judas (Darius Willis) must have killed his twin in the womb.
Zelda leaves Leticia to be raised by Demelza (Brenda McDonald), but a vision during a tarot card session causes her to realize that the child has ended up in Faustus' grip anyway. This act marks Zelda out as an enemy of his fast-growing religious cult, The Church of Night. Though the twins' half-sister, Prudence (Tati Gabrielle) eventually breaks away from the order to forge her own destiny, Judith spends much of the rest of the show acting as Faustus's acolyte. She and Judas even worship their father's rotting body and try to spread the word of his gospel among other covens.
Peak was with the series from Season 1 through Season 4, putting in 10 appearances in the program.
She was a queen bee in Home Before Dark
Whitney Peak's next appearance was in the two-season long (so far) Apple TV + series "Home Before Dark." Peak plays Jessica Fife in the show, which follows Hilde Lisko (Brooklynn Prince), a budding young journalist. Hilde moves from Brooklyn with her father Matthew (Jim Sturgess), her mother Bridget (Abby Miller), and her sister Izzy (Kylie Rogers) to her father's tiny hometown in Erie Harbor. Hilde experiences growing pains while adjusting to a new school, a new social environment, and her rivalry with Jessica, aka Alpha Jessica, who rules the high school where Hilde is a freshman. The two eventually become friends, but a mystery regarding Jessica's family still envelopes the town.
Jessica's uncle, Richie, disappeared long ago when Matthew was young, without a trace. It's a mystery that haunts father and daughter and leaves Hilde determined to solve the case. In the meantime, Hilde runs the school paper and can't help but dip her nose into the serious trouble circling her new hamlet. But that's just one of two cold cases which intrigue Hilde and fuel her never-ending quest for the truth.
The series, which is made for tweens, has neither been renewed for a third season nor canceled as of this writing.
Peak was one of the elite in Gossip Girl
If you don't remember Whitney Peak from any of these other appearances, then you're quite likely to recall her from HBO Max's ongoing reboot of "Gossip Girls," where she portrays Zoya Lott.
Zoya attends Constance Billard — a tiny high school in Manhattan where the original cast of the show matriculated — at the request of Julien Calloway (Jordan Alexander), a megawealthy influencer who happens to be Zoya's half-sister. Zoya and Julien are torn over the same boy — Otto "Obie" Bergmann IV (Eli Brown), a kind and honest kid who also happens to be uberwealthy. In fact, no one knows that Zoya's attending the school on a scholarship and does not have even a scintilla of the wealth of her classmates. But, as always, Gossip Girl knows all.
Peak apparently has fun playing with the have-not world from which Zoya has sprung. "It's fun because she's in a stage of being introduced to this world where she's still very authentic but also struggling with altering herself to fit in," she told The Hollywood Reporter in July of 2021. She added that she'd watched the original show as a teenager as well. "I thought it was so entertaining. It was also kind of weird because when I started watching it, I went to a regular public school and didn't really have to think about the fact that people live like that and have problems like that."
The back half of the first season of "Gossip Girl" will return to HBO Max in November 2022, and the series has already been renewed for a second season.