Actress Cheyenne Phillips Has Strong Ties to Oneonta, Otsego County

OTSEGO COUNTY, NY—“A Cooperstown Christmas Movie” star Cheyenne Phillips has an unusual distinction among her Hollywood peers. Some of them are bi-coastal. Phillips, an actress-model-writer-producer, has them beat by one coast, as she is tri-coastal.

A dual citizen of Australia and the United States, Phillips has spent much of the past few years working in Sydney. A Los Angeles native, her East Coast home is a surprise, too: Oneonta, the City of the Hills, in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains, about 175 miles from New York City.

“I am very fortunate to have a property right in the heart of Oneonta where our film commission, (Film Otsego) continues to thrive with bustling projects,” Phillips said in an e-mail from Australia, where she has been acting and modeling for the past two years.

“I’m blessed to live in this charming little city where endless opportunities are awaiting,” she said.

Those local connections helped Phillips land one of the lead roles in “Ouija Witch,” the horror film shot in Oneonta by Salem House Films and Otsego Media in 2022. The City of the Hills doubled for Salem in much of the movie. Phillips played Mary Blackwood and the evil witch.

Phillips met Otsego Media producer Alysa Blasetti in 2021 on a Women in Film Tour organized by the local film commission (then Film COOP, now Film Otsego).

“The Women In Film tour provided all film makers with the opportunity to seek out and scout locations for our upcoming films,” Phillips said. “Not only did we get to scout out locations, we came across other creators where we bonded, and shared ideas to create our next movie, or television show.”

On the same tour, Phillips met actor-writer-director-producer Lauren Sowa, and Otsego County Film Commissioner Greg Klein, who organized the tour.

“The notes I got from the filmmakers were Otsego County looked like horror and Hallmark,” Klein said. “I think it was Lauren, a filmmaker who lives in the Bronx, who first said Hallmark. I remember exclaiming how little I knew about Hallmark-type movies. ‘Don’t worry about it. There is a form to it,’ she said. ‘I can send you a great article about the dos and don’ts.’”

A week after the event, Klein took Phillips and her mom, Christina, to see Cooperstown’s museums and they discussed what Sowa had told them. Sitting at the Lucy B. Hamilton Amphitheater, they wrote out a “deal memo” to develop a Hallmark-like film set in Cooperstown for Phillips to star in.

“Originally it was for ‘an untitled Cheyenne Phillips holiday film,’ but we made a list of names and picked ‘A Cooperstown Christmas’ while we were sitting there,” Klein said.

“Cheyenne has been a great partner,” he continued. “Neither of us had written with a partner before. Neither of us had started a company to produce a movie before. However, she has grown up in the industry. She has a bit of a sixth sense … not just about writing for her character, but about the business. She’s relentless in pursuit of her dreams, and she works as hard as anyone I know, so she’s a good inspiration, too.”

After the initial script was written, Klein showed it to Sowa and asked her if she was interested in directing it.

“It has always been Lauren’s vision in some ways,” Klein said, “especially after rewrites. Wearing my film commissioner hat, I like to think of it as a brilliant filmmaker’s vision of how to shoot Otsego County.”

During “Ouija Witch,” Phillips often had to spend long hours in the make-up chair getting into character. In a twist worthy of Hollywood instead of Oneonta, her make-up artist connected her with the New York City producing team of Eva Minemar and Dolores Diaz and their production company, Mulberry Queens Films. The duo shares a love for Christmas films and already had a relationship with Sowa, who runs a resource group for women filmmakers in the city, PANO Network.

“Mulberry Queens and Lauren shed a lot of light on our upcoming film,” Phillips said.

“We learned something called the Hallmark nine-act structure,” Klein said. “It has been a lot of work. I think we ripped up 80 percent of the original script. Cheyenne might have been at her best during rewrites, because when I was lost in the minutia of pages and pages of notes, she saw the bigger picture. She kept us focused on her character and the story.”

In A Cooperstown Christmas — “a romantic comedy about a Christmas family drama” — Phillips plays Cait Rogers, a New York City “30 Under 30” type whose love life doesn’t match her career success.

A Cooperstown native, Cait has bad feelings about her hometown because of a public pressure marriage proposal her high-school boyfriend sprung on her at a friend’s wedding. However, with her little sister getting married in the big family tradition way—a Christmas wedding—Cait is forced to do the one thing she hates the most, go home for the holidays. And when her long-distance boyfriend dumps her just before the wedding, she is forced to take her boss (Klein) and assistant instead.

In addition to perfecting a script, Phillips and Klein had to start a business, A Cooperstown Christmas Movie Inc. That led them to the summer Christmas in July fundraiser set for Sunday, July 7 at the Lake House Restaurant & Lodge in Richfield on Canadarago Lake.

“A local film maker from Laurens—“The Monkey” director, Spencer Sherry—suggested the Christmas in July idea,” Klein said. “The film has a band guy as the male romantic lead and there is a fundraising concert at the Lake House in the script. So, we thought it would be a cute parallel, although in the movie, it is a winter show to save a local Christmas Under the Lights Festival.”

The concert is headlined by Dan Toth and his band Audio Riot. A New Jersey group, Toth’s music video, “Key in the Door,” features Phillips.

“Cheyenne is amazing,” Toth said. “She has been a good friend of mine ever since I went out to LA to shoot a music video, which I think was in 2018 or 2019. Then we shot another video together later on for [Key in the Door].”

Opening the show are two Otsego County favorites.

Rapper King Konye will emcee and perform, followed by Kathook. Konye and Kathook will also play a set together.

Doors open at 2 p.m., with music beginning at 3 p.m. Food and drinks will be available for purchase at the venue. The show is outdoors. Bring chairs, blankets and sunscreen.

Parking is available on site, but is limited. Leatherstocking Trolley will be providing a free shuttle from Cooperstown’s Doubleday Field (1:30, 2:30) and Spring Park in Richfield Springs. There will be return shuttles after the show ends at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $25.00 and are available at the door or in advance on Ticketleap. All ticket holders can register for paid background (extra) roles in the movie.

Phillips, unfortunately, will be in Australia working in July, but she said she is planning a New York return soon. She has two theater projects she wants to stage in Oneonta and she and Klein are developing another film project for her, while working to get “A Cooperstown Christmas” its green light.

“I have been very fortunate to have the opportunities that have come my way,” Phillips said, “but I am starting to feel that New York is calling my name more and more.”

Phillips became a board member of the film commission not long after the WIF event, and she has attended most of the meetings virtually, despite the 15 hour time difference between Sydney and Oneonta.

Klein said that he respects how hard Phillips works and he looks forward to their upcoming projects together. Hallmark is a perfect genre for her, he said, and bringing those type of movies to Otsego County will be a big boon for the growing film industry in the region.

“With Shocktoberfest returning to Foothills PAC for its third year on Saturday, October 26, and with Salem House Films and Otsego Media making so many movies here, horror is happening organically,” Klein said.

“We’re still ‘in development’ on Hallmark, but I am optimistic.”

Tickets to the Christmas in July concert and fundraiser are limited. They can be purchased at the door at the Lake House on the day of the event or at Ticketleap at christmasinjulymoviefundraiser.ticketleap.com/christmas-in-julyconcert-at-the-lake-house/.

For more information, contact Klein at JYDBook@gmail.com.