Why Brittany From Fatal Affair Looks So Familiar

Have you already seen Fatal Affair, the psychological thriller that has been heating up Netflix as of late? The Netflix original movie is about Ellie Warren (Nia Long), a big city attorney who tries to downshift by moving to a neat country estate with her husband, Marcus (Stephen Bishop), and their daughter. Ellie bumps into an old friend named David Hammond (Omar Epps), and almost has an extramarital tryst with him. Unfortunately, it turns out that David is a psychologically unstable man who's unhealthily obsessed with Ellie, and isn't about to let the fact that she already has a family get in the way of pursuing her ... by any means necessary. 

It's a quality take on a classic plot, efficiently driven forward by a number of familiar and talented actors. You probably recognize industry veterans like Long and Epps from a fair few shows and movies, but it might also seem like you've seen the actor playing their daughter, Brittany, before. Chances are, you have! Here's why Brittany from Fatal Affair looks so familiar.

Brittany Warren is played by Aubrey Cleland, a 27 year-old actress and singer. Though she has only begun to make her mark in the movie industry, she's far from a complete newcomer. In fact, she's a pretty experienced hand when it comes to performing. 

In 2013, Cleland rose to fame as a contender in the 12th season of American Idol. As Oregon Live notes, she handily made it to the Top 20 performers, but eventually fell a touch short of reaching the Top 10. This wasn't, however, the end of her American Idol journey. Thanks to her popularity, she managed to get enough viewer votes to take part in an "AT&T American Idol Live Tour Fan Save," which allowed her to have a sing-off competition against fellow contestant Charlie Askew. Cleland won the challenge, and got to take part in the American Idol Live tour, performing all around the country with the 10 finalists. This ended up being a bit of a saving grace, because without such success, her plans for that year would have been dramatically different. "I probably would have gone back to school, and gone back to Oregon for the summer, and a summer job," Cleland revealed of her backup plan. "I think this is a lot better summer job than I would've had! It's also going to help further my career." 

In 2014, Audrey Cleland's career started pivoting toward acting. At first, her work was sporadic and focused on single-episode roles in known TV series. She cut her teeth as Katrina on Dan Schneider's teen sitcom Sam & Cat, and in 2015 she played Victoria Taylor in the creepy Criminal Minds episode, "Pariahville." In 2016, she appeared as an unnamed student on an episode of CSI: Cyber. 

The most high-profile one-shot role in Cleland's acting career was quite possibly on Lethal Weapon, the TV reboot of the legendary buddy cop franchise starring Damon Wayans and Clayne Crawford (and eventually Seann William Scott, after Crawford was fired). In 2017, Cleland appeared on an episode called "The Seal Is Broken," on which she played Feather, a girl who dated Roger Murtaugh's (Wayans) son RJ (Dante Brown). Feather's altruistic streak created a fair share of turmoil in the Murtaugh household, as she was planning to quit college and start helping the poor, and RJ intended to follow her and suspend his enrollment in Princeton. The plotline was eventually resolved when Feather broke up with RJ.

After her turn on Lethal Weapon, Cleland has appeared in multiple shows and movies. In 2018, she had a part in the horror movie The Row, as well as two of her signature one-episode appearances on All About The Washingtons and the Nathan Fillion-starring comedic police procedural The Rookie. Though her 2019 was slightly slower and she only had one acting credit to her name that year, her turn in Fatal Affair has made it sure that she's owning 2020.  

What's more, it sure looks like she's not about to go away in a hurry. In fact, Cleland currently has two projects in post-production: Eli Gonda's (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) high school comedy Sid Is Dead, in which she plays Candace opposite Mary Stuart Masterson (Fried Green Tomatoes, Benny & Joon), and Chasing Nightmares, a scary movie in which she stars with veterans

Anne Heche (Donnie Brasco) and Graham McTavish (The Hobbit trilogy). Here's hoping her youthful charisma will grace our screens many more times in the future.