Young Kiwi star scores US TV role

A young Kiwi actress is heading for the bright lights of New York - as one of the stars of a brand-new US television show.

Stefania Owen, from Wellington, came to attention in the Peter Jackson-directed film The Lovely Bones playing eight-year-old Flora Hernandez, who was a victim of the serial killer character.

In Running Wilde, a new US romantic comedy series from Mitch Hurwitz - the Emmy Award-winning creator of TV show Arrested Development - 12-year-old Owen plays the role of Puddle, the daughter of main character Emmy (Keri Russell from Felicity).

New York production
Owen’s mother, Margarita, says her daughter is very excited to have landed the role.

The young actress, who flew to Vancouver in April to film the series’ pilot, will be based in New York for nine months while the remaining 12 episodes are in production.

Stefania Owen says she will miss New Zealand during her time away from home.

"It’s so awesome living here. I will miss my friends but some of them have said they will come over. We can go to Broadway shows and make snowmen," she says.

Showbiz family
Stefania comes from a family that’s not shy about being in the limelight.

Older sister Carly Owen had a part in the 2006 children’s movie Bridge to Terabithia, which was filmed in New Zealand. While Stefania's parents, Margarita and Mark Owen were extras in Avatar, the world’s biggest-selling movie.

Mark Owen, a Kiwi who grew up in the Wellington suburb of Seatoun, met his Cuban-born wife Margarita on the Isle of Man. The couple own and run the plush Villa Margarita luxury lodge on the Pauatahanui Inlet, north of Wellington.

Stefania is the middle child - between Carly and younger sister Lolo - in their family of three daughters.

A normal teen
Running Wilde tells the story of Puddle (Stefania Owen), a 12-year-old girl who lives with her do-gooder mother Emmy (Keri Russell) in the Amazon rainforest. Puddle hates her life and just wants to be a normal teenager.

When her mother’s childhood sweetheart Steve Wilde (Will Arnett), now a rich playboy, turns up on their doorstep with plans to expand his oil business, the hopelessly mismatched pair has to figure out where the relationship stands - and Puddle realises she may get a chance to just be a normal kid.

Running Wilde is a FOX network production that will debut on American television screens in the Fall.

'The Lovely Bones'
Rubbing shoulders with big-name Hollywood celebrities is all in a day’s work for Stefania Owen, who worked with the stars of The Lovely Bones while the movie was being filmed, partly in New Zealand.

Owen said that while she was nervous and felt shy at meeting Susan Sarandon, Mark Wahlberg and Stanley Tucci that feeling went away once she started rehearsing lines.

"Stanley Tucci and all the other actors were really friendly and Peter Jackson was down-to-earth. He was funny, making jokes all the time."

The Lovely Bones is based on the award-winning novel by Alice Sebold. It tells the story of 14-year-old Susie Salmon, who is murdered by her serial killer neighbour at the start of the film - and her watching over her family and the events on earth from heaven.

More information

Official FOX trailer for 'Running Wilde'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C83JwpW-yF8