Cassi Thomson

From Queensland to the Suburbs of Missouri

Cassi Thomson was born in Australia, but her life changed suddenly when her family moved to a farm in Missouri. She was five years old when her family decided to cross the ocean. There, she learned to ride horses before she learned to navigate auditions for the major networks.

By the age of eleven, she was regularly traveling to Los Angeles to try her luck in commercials. Her first meaningful role came in 2006 with a brief appearance in Without a Trace. It wasn't an explosive start, but it taught her how a professional set worked.

And the industry started to take notice of her.

In 2009, she landed the role of Cara Lynn Lovat on the HBO series Big Love. She joined in the third season and stayed until the end of the production in 2011. Playing a teenager trapped in a world of mysticism and polygamy required a restraint few expected from a sixteen-year-old actress.

But her TV success didn't stop her from trying to break into country music charts. In 2008, she recorded the single Caught Up In You and shot a music video that circulated on specialty channels. Music was always a side project that never overshadowed her work in front of the camera.

The Big Screen Slump

Her big break in theatrical films came in 2014 with Left Behind. She shared the screen with Nicolas Cage, playing their daughter, Chloe Steele. The project was a risky bet based on a series of religious novels with millions of followers.

Critics were merciless toward the film.

The 16 million dollar budget barely managed to salvage the wreckage at the international box office. Despite harsh criticism from the specialized press, Thomson held her ground on a shoot made difficult by the expectations of evangelical audiences. It was her first real encounter with the massive scrutiny of the internet.

Before that film misstep, she worked on Switched at Birth between 2012 and 2014. She played Nikki Papagus across twenty episodes. During this stage, she showed she was better suited to long-running television drama than to studio blockbusters.

Supporting Roles and Behind-the-Scenes Work

Her work pace slowed down after her marriage to musician Travis Clark in 2017. Even so, she maintained a steady presence in fast-paced series. In 2016, she appeared in NCIS, and a year later she guest-starred in an episode of Hawaii Five-0.

In 2018, she had a small role in the film Gloria Bell, starring Julianne Moore. It was a brief appearance, but it gave her the chance to work under Sebastián Lelio. Independent film offered her a refuge after years of exposure on network television.

The camera loves her up close.

In 2019, she starred in the TV movie A Christmas to Cherish, made for American television. Productions like this are usually shot in less than three weeks to meet holiday broadcast schedules. The distribution deal for these films is usually closed before filming begins.