Why The New Rocket Mortgage Spokeswoman Looks So Familiar
Plenty of actors find themselves stumping for corporate America in commercials. Ben Affleck out-memed himself in Dunkin's Super Bowl 2023 commercial. Dennis Haysbert is likely more well known to most folks as the voice of a series of Allstate commercials than for any movie he ever did — and this guy was in Michael Mann's "Heat"!
Some famous faces jump into the world of commercials, and it can be challenging to put a name to the face. For instance, that red-headed woman who is breaking down mortgages for young couples for Rocket Mortgage? That's Felicia Day.
Okay, maybe it'll take a bit more work than that to remind people just why that name and that face are so familiar. She's been in plenty of geek-approved projects over the years. She's also done plenty of other commercials so if some of her bigger work doesn't ring a bell, perhaps you know her from some old ads from her early career that she likes to post to her social media.
One of her first commercials was for the U.S. Post Office, an ad the actor shared through TikTok, where she sports more than 190,000 followers. We all got to start somewhere.
She broke out thanks to her work with Joss Whedon
Felicia Day's biggest early hits came thanks to her work with Joss Whedon. She appeared in eight episodes of "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" as the character of Vi/Violet, a fellow "Slayer" in 2003. But she took a more central role in Whedon's "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" years later.
The 2008 three-act musical followed a supervillain (Neil Patrick Harris) longing for a girl named Penny (Day). The story had plenty of comedy but also packed an emotional gut punch pulled off thanks to the performances by Harris and Day. The project was released straight to the internet and put together by Whedon during the 2007-2008 writers' strike, according to a TV Guide interview.
Day had plenty of experience filming her own scripted content for YouTube before she joined Whedon's project. There has been talk of a "Sing-Along Blog" sequel over the years, and in a 2019 interview with Metro, the actor expressed being open to a continuation of the property, saying she knew it was a project that would stand the test of time.
"There are some things in your life that you do, and when you do them, you know they're going to last. And I think 'Dr Horrible' is just as relevant today as it was back then...Musicals, when you do them right, can last forever," she said.
Felicia Day created her own show with The Guild
Felicia Day found her biggest success in herself. The actor was one of the early adopters of platforms like YouTube, and she created, produced, and starred in her own web series called "The Guild," which ran from 2007 to 2013.
The series followed the lives of an online gaming guild called The Knights of Good. Day introduced each episode as Codex/Cyd Sherman, the Priestess of the group. The series attracted a lot of attention after its first season was posted to YouTube. According to Day, she turned down plenty of offers before the show went to Microsoft for much of its run. The deal allowed Day to keep control of her creation.
"Traditional media outlets, whether they're online or mainstream, tend to want to own property," she told the Los Angeles Times in 2008 about signing up with Microsoft. Shockingly, Day actually tried making "The Guild" into a traditional TV series, but she found the format and its focus on the gaming world made the project too far ahead of its time for studio tastes.
"Even at that time, over a year ago, people didn't understand that people played online together," Day said about the failed attempt to go the more traditional route.
She played Charlie on Supernatural
Fans may also recognize Felicia Day from her role as Charlie Bradbury on "Supernatural," a series following the demon-hunting Winchester brothers (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles).
Charlie was introduced in the Season 7 episode "The Girl with the Dungeons and the Dragons Tattoos," a play on author Stieg Larsson's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" novel which follows an equally deadly female protagonist. When we first meet Charlie, she is a whiz at computers who likes to use her skills to transfer money from the poor to the rich. The character continued making appearances over the years, with Day appearing in a total of 11. In that time, Charlie went from a hacker to a fellow demon hunter after her boss hires her for a hacking job that introduces her to the dark world of things that go bump in the night.
At the time she was offered the role of Charlie, Day said she was preoccupied with her own internet content and wasn't even thinking about taking on new roles. She loved the character though and agreed to the role only because she thought Season 7 might be the last for "Supernatural." The show did eventually end — after 15 seasons.
"I swear to God that was one of the factors because 'Buffy' lasted seven years and that was the other show I was on that was kind of a cult classic. So, I was like, 'I gotta get in while I can!' And that was only supposed to be the one-off episode, but it turned into eight years of my life on and off and I'm so, so blessed," she told IGN in a 2021 interview looking back at the role.
She was in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 reboot
Felicia Day was brought into the reboot of "Mystery Science Theater 3000," a show where hosts waste away their days in space by watching and riffing on terrible movies. The continuation began with a successful 2021 crowdfunding campaign that raised a whopping $5.8 million through Kickstarter.
Day has said she was a fan of the original "Mystery Science Theater" herself and it was actually her fandom that landed her the reboot gig. The actor recalled attending a con and wanting to meet "Mystery Science Theater 3000" creator Joel Hodgson, both because she loved "Mystery Science Theater" and to make her brother, a fellow fan, jealous.
"The reason Joel thought of me for this was because I was in Salt Lake City at the con and I went up to get a picture with him because I wanted to rub it in my brother Ryon's face. So thanks Ryon! You got me my dream job!" she wrote on Facebook after being cast as Kinga Forrester in 2015.
Kinga Forrester is the lead scientist of "Mystery Science Theater" and the daughter of Dr. Clayton Forrester, a fellow mad scientist. According to series lore, Kinga is also the daughter of "Sex and the City" actor Kim Cattrall.