Talia Denis

Actor Lawton Denis from Albany recently met with production casting people for some of the biggest filmmakers in Hollywood: namely, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard and Tim Burton. He’s been in several regional independent films, and last month, he won an award for his performance in The Night We Met, a teen romance filmed in Schroon Lake. Since Halloween evening, however, Lawton may be best known for his appearance on the Fox TV series Gotham: In the Oct. 31 episode, he shared the screen with the show’s leading man, Det. Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie). Last year, Lawton had a role in another primetime Fox show, Sleepy Hollow. It’s a pretty impressive resume for someone who says he’s been a “real” actor for about one year. What’s even more impressive is that Lawton is only nine years old.

“I’ve been an actor for about two years but it really got real about a year ago,” he says. “I got a movie called This is Nowhere, and one of our friends on the movie said I should get an agent. I got an agent, and a manager, and then I got more things,” he says of his rapid rise as a working actor. “Now I have an agent in New York City and one in Los Angeles.”

This is Nowhere is the largest-scale feature film to date from local filmmakers Jon and Tracy Cring; the friend on set was actor Jon David Casey (Elementary, Blue Bloods). Casey was so impressed with Lawton’s “exceptional” ability that he contacted his own agent, Liz Rosier of Rosier Artist Management, to meet with him. Rosier doesn’t represent child actors, but she made an exception for Lawton, says Lawton’s father, Stan Denis. “Within five minutes, they said, ‘we gotta have him,’” he says.

Lawton was “discovered” a few years ago by the Crings (who are married partners) when they were directing a music video for Lawton’s older sister, singer-songwriter-pianist Talia Denis. “Jon cast Lawton in a small role, and he said to me, ‘He really has something, he could have a big future,’” says Stan. “And I didn’t take it seriously, because we lived in Albany. Jon and Tracy continued to make Talia’s videos and to cast Lawton, and then when he was about six years old, they said, ‘You have to do something with him, he’s directable, he’s easy, he’s fun.’ So they cast him in Hobo Heyseus and he really enjoyed it. And Jon thought there was some kind of magic.”

In This is Nowhere, which was shot last year, Lawton plays the son of Casey’s character, which led to the meeting with Rosier in New York City.

Says Rosier: [Jon David Casey] said to me, ‘I just met this phenomenal kid on set. I know you don’t represent children but he’s really special.’ So I met with Lawton and I found him to be such a wonderful kid, I just fell in love with him. He’s passionate about acting and very talented, but he’s still just a normal kid. You can’t help but notice that when you meet him. He’s a complete natural.”

Lawton has never taken an acting class. Asked if he has a method, he replies, “I just go with it.” As to being part of a prime-time television show, he says, “It was really cool. It was cool seeing how everything comes together, from the beginning to the end. Everyone was really nice. The whole acting business is really nice,” he continues. During Gotham, he got to talk a lot with the show’s star, McKenzie, and he became “friends in real life” with Juliana Pinho, the young actress he shares a scene with.

Unlike his sister Talia, who knew she wanted to be a singer by age four, Lawton didn’t know he wanted to be an actor when he was first cast at age five. “I didn’t think I would be an actor, I didn’t know it was possible for me,” he says. “But all of sudden, I got my first-ever movie, Hobo Heyseus, and then The Night We Met. And then we didn’t know what to do. But when you have an agent, they get you stuff.”

Currently, Lawton is up for a role on a major network sitcom. “It’s a punk kid, so it’s perfect for him,” laughs Stan. “It’s more my type of role to play,” agrees Lawton. “I can act more sarcastic and do the punky stuff really well.”

“There are other doors opening for him,” says Stan, referring to Lawton’s meetings with production people for Hollywood A-list directors. He’s not sure what roles Lawton is being considered for—“they all have multiple projects happening,” he says—“but what’s cool about Lawton is that they’re seeing the ability to do all kinds of acting. He’s an ‘unusual natural’ or so they tell us. (The owner of an entertainment-events production company, Stan readily admits that music, not movies, is his forte.)

“One of the films he’s being looked at for is a real heartbreaker,” Stan continues. “It’s a dark drama, very sad, and they liked him for that. And some of the roles are almost superhero-ish, and some are for a punky, fun kid. And he can do this. I thought, the first couple of roles he got in independent films, were just lucky that he could do those roles. But then the time came when he had to, for the first time, just cry. And somehow he could do it. Or he had to be super scared, like if you look at Sleepy Hollow, he had to be scared and serious and I had never seen him do that.

“For whatever reason, he has an unusual understanding for his age of life situations and what they would look like,” Stan continues. “He just gets into character. I don’t know anything about it, but that’s what everyone says, and it’s why I think he’s becoming a hotter commodity.”

For a young child in an industry known for its brutal rejection rate, Lawton is remarkably equanimous. “I can handle it,” he says with a smile. “I don’t worry about it.” Stan explains that they have an approach to deal with the ups and downs. “The audition itself is the success,” he says. “We assume that we didn’t get the role, because there’s so many kids. You just say, ‘I had a great experience, I made a great impression.’ And then if we get a call back, great, and if not, we just move on.”

Stan has had practice with a child who unexpectedly becomes successful in a competitive field: His daughter Talia, now 15, is an accomplished musician who often performs in front of audiences in the tens of thousands, and who is writing a new release titled Like This Is the End. When she was 10, she opened for Britpop band Deluca at the Egg.

“I grew up always watching live-music DVDs, we watched music every single night,” she says. “Something was always on, I’m a music fanatic,” adds Stan. “It looked like the artists were having so much fun onstage,” Talia continues. “I was probably four years old and I really wanted to have as much fun as they were on stage.”

“I create and sell companies,” explains Stan. “When Talia was four, I had a holiday party for [my company] Albany Massage Therapy, and we hired some professional entertainment to come and perform at the party. When they took a break, Talia asked me if she could go up and sing a song. There were a lot of people there and I did not think she would actually do it. She started singing a Sarah McLachlan song, and people crowded around her . . . just that she had the guts to go do it,” he adds admiringly.

“I don’t think I knew I could sing, but others told me that I could sing,” says Talia. “So I put a demo song on YouTube with a good friend of ours [producer Brian Mansell], and apparently, two producers from New York City saw the video, and they asked us if we wanted to do a 4-song EP with them. So I did that, I was around 10 years old, and I’ve continued to make music ever since then.”

“There was an unusual piano capability,” says Stan. “Not like classically trained, but she’s the youngest pianist ever endorsed by Kawai pianos, ever, in the world. That happened when she was 12. I think it was because she approached music, and piano, from a songwriter’s perspective, and that’s a different thing from a kid who has been trained to play Mozart.”

“I think I’ve accomplished some unusual things for my age,” says Talia. “I’ve had the chance to sing at Madison Square Garden, I sang the National Anthem for a [New York] Rangers game. But I really just like singing for others. I really like building a connection between me and the audience at my shows.”

Talia is as modest as she is poised, and so her father helps describe her career: “She has her own band and they are crazy good. Her YouTube views are over 2 million. She has tens of thousands of online fans, she’s performed with Rusted Root, and she opened for Fifth Harmony, one of the biggest pop bands in the world.” And the two producers who found her YouTube? Their resumes run from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra to Bruce Springsteen. “It was a grassroots thing, she was just having fun,” says Stan. “And she had enough online success that they found her.”

Having fun is the connecting theme between family members, and far from engaging in sibling rivalry, Lawton and Talia support each other. Lawton helps carry Talia’s equipment to gigs, and she styles his hair and picks out his clothes for auditions.

“It’s about having fun and it’s the same thing with sports, they are both heavy-duty athletes,” says Stan. “Talia was a top gymnast for 13 years.” (After breaking her foot she switched to weight training last year.)

“I play soccer five or six days a week,” says Lawton. Asked if his teammates ask for his autograph, he breaks into an abashed smile and says no. “They both are very motivating, soccer and acting,” he says. “You really have to work hard, and if you work really hard, you get better.”

Both children are homeschooled and so aren’t on school teams. “The good thing about both their soccer and gymnastics is that the highest level of play is in clubs, not schools,” says Stan. “Lawton is a very proud member of the Albany Alleycats soccer team, and Talia was a member of World Class Gymnastics Academy.

“This is where, I think, a lot of parents go down a rabbit hole in a way that is sometimes limiting,” he continues. “Under most circumstances, if you have highly athletic children, it’s usually because they’re from an athletic family, who are fans of athletics. And a lot of times those kids never really have the artistic sides of their lives developed. The inverse is also true. But the two totally work together, and one keeps your feet on the ground for the other. Like for Lawton, he was on Gotham, but when he goes to soccer, his teammates only care if he scores goals or helps them win the game. And that’s important, it helps to keep him a normal kid. Same thing with Talia. Sports can be humbling. And it helps her handle stress.”

If it sounds like Stan could write a book on parenting, well, he has. His first book is titled What About Dad? Getting the Most out of Being a Father, and he’s currently at work on a second parenting book.

“The first book was really about Talia, because Lawton was not around yet,” he says. “Now I’m writing a book about raising a champion. Which is not about raising champions in the sense of, ‘I have many, many trophies.’ It’s about assuming your child is champion and treating him as such. People say, ‘Of course I would drive my child to New York City if he got invited to audition for Gotham.’ But it doesn’t start that way. It has to start where you might have to drive your child to New York to get a role as an extra in a cereal commercial and you don’t even see their face. If you’re waiting for them to be a champion before you’re willing get involved or really commit, then it doesn’t happen,” he says. “We pursue their dreams, and we do it as if Lawton was, say, Tom Hanks, and Talia was Sarah McLachlan. That’s how we start.”

Asked how he combines parenting with his entrepreneurial instincts, he says, “I came from an unusual place in life, I grew up in foster homes. I quit school in ninth grade. My father passed away last year in prison. I had a pretty rough upbringing. I was fortunate to have survived. Part of learning to survive was learning how to create companies,” he continues. “A lot of doors were closed to me, because I quit school, and doors were closed because of how I was brought up. I’m entrepreneurially minded and I started creating companies when I was 17 years old. Some were tremendously successful and some were not. But the combination of that, and my commitment that my children would not go through those negative things, just came together to form an unusual parenting situation for them.”

“I think about parenting a lot, about not messing them up as I got messed up,” he says. “I promised my wife, and myself, that we would raise our children in the way that makes the most sense from the heart. Right from day one we decided that we were going to homeschool them both. To open up other chances, other things. They would not have their careers if we did not home school. They would not have those opportunities, like when you get a call at 11:30 in the morning for an audition that day, and you jump in the car and he learns his lines on the way.

“But you want them to have a life,” he adds. “I was a music fanatic but I never pushed Talia. And acting, I don’t second-guess directors. I don’t get emotional like stage parents. I’m just amazing glad to be there.

“So it’s like, I ask Lawton if he wants to do the audition or if he wants to take a pass.” “I almost always say yes,” interjects Lawton with a beaming smile. “Same with Talia,” says Stan. “And if she does want to do it, then I will do whatever it takes. I think every family wants to do that but I’ve designed my life in a way where I can. And we do without certain things because of that,” he adds. “I’d make a lot more money if I just worked 80 hours a week like a normal entrepreneur. But they would have fewer opportunities.

“With both of them, I always try to do things where we can have success; a big show, a small show, or with him, a big film, a little anything. If this were all to dry up tomorrow, and Lawton said, ‘I miss acting,’ then we would find local theater or something. If that’s what he wanted.” - The ALT

Talia Denis has a budding musical career that is going to get even bigger this weekend when she performs the National Anthem at the start of Sunday’s New York Rangers game.

The teen is rehearsing the difficult melody in preparation for her performance at 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 19 at Madison Square Garden to kick off the Rangers vs. San Jose Sharks game. It is scheduled to be broadcast locally on the MSG network.

Talia Denis, 13 has been composing, singing, and recording since she put out her first demonstration single at age eight. That effort led to her recording her first real record in 2011 with New York City producers Zak Soulman and Michael Visceglia. From that effort her talent began to get recognized by a wider audience and the increased recognition led directly to the offer to perform before Sunday’s Rangers’ game.

“It all came about as the result of Talia’s growing popularity,” said her father and manager Stan Denis. “We were contacted late last week by Madison Square Garden. They asked if Talia would sing for both the
Rangers and the Knicks. I think the offer has a lot to do with her approaching a million views on You Tube. It’s the momentum.”

The performance before the Knicks game has yet to be finalized.

Stan Denis said his daughter will perform the song live, a cappella, wearing a Rangers jersey.

“They’re expecting 25,000 people at the game plus the TV audience,” Stan Denis said. “It’s a big deal. Rangers fans are real fanatics. It’ll definitely be the largest audience that has ever seen Talia perform.”

“She’s been asked to sing the National Anthem many times in the past and we’ve always refused,” he said. “But you can’t turn this down. Madison Square Garden is the Holy Grail. It’s a world renowned venue.”

Denis said the offer proves to him that Talia’s musical skills are seen as having value by others and also lets he and his wife Kimberly know that the work they’ve done in recent years with their daughter’s musical talent is working.

“Singing the National Anthem is not something Talia normally does,” Denis said. “She’s a pop rock singer. The offer shows me she’s on the national map. Singing the National Anthem at Madison Square Garden is an honor most people will never get. When they ask you, you have to say yes."

Denis said his daughter understands there will be a big echo in the hall and that there will be a vocal delay. She is already preparing and looking forward to the afternoon rehearsal.

“This is big. It’ll be on TV. You know someone out there will hear it if you miss a word or make a mistake and I didn’t want that to happen.”

In 2014 Talia Denis released her latest full length album, “So Alive”. - CN Weekly

Clifton Park resident Talia Denis has a budding musical career that got even bigger this past weekend when she performed the National Anthem at the start of Sunday’s New York Rangers game.
Talia Denis performs at Madison Square Garden - ReBath of Albany
Talia Denis, from Clifton Park, performed the National Anthem at the Ranger’s game this past Sunday. Photo credit: official Talia Denis Instagram.
The teen learned all the correct lyrics and rehearsed the difficult melody in preparation for her performance at 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 19 at Madison Square Garden to kick off the Rangers vs. San Jose Sharks game. The game was televised, giving many of her hometown fans the opportunity to see her.
Talia Denis, 13 has been composing, singing, and recording since she put out her first demonstration single at age eight. That effort led to her recording her first real record in 2011 with New York City producers Zak Soulman and Michael Visceglia. From that effort her talent began to get recognized by a wider audience and the increased recognition led directly to the offer to perform before Sunday’s Rangers’ game.
“It all came about as the result of Talia’s growing popularity,” said her father and manager Stan Denis. “We were contacted late last week by Madison Square Garden. They asked if Talia would sing for both the Rangers and the Knicks. I think the offer has a lot to do with her approaching a million views on You Tube. It’s the momentum.”
The performance before the Knicks game has yet to be finalized.
Stan Denis said his daughter will perform the song live, a cappella, wearing a Rangers jersey. The performance will be compensated and the entire family also will enjoy food, beverages, and tickets to the game.
“They’re expecting 25,000 people at the game plus the TV audience,” Stan Denis said. “It’s a big deal. Rangers fans are real fanatics. It’ll definitely be the largest audience that has ever seen Talia perform.”
Denis said he and his daughter checked out the song’s official lyrics and he had Talia sing it for him several times before he accepted the offer.
“She’s been asked to sing the National Anthem many times in the past and we’ve always refused,” he said. “But you can’t turn this down. Madison Square Garden is the Holy Grail. It’s a world renowned venue.”
Denis said the offer proves to him that Talia’s musical skills are seen as having value by others and also lets he and his wife Kimberly know that the work they’ve done in recent years with their daughter’s musical talent is working.
“Singing the National Anthem is not something Talia normally does,” Denis said. “She’s a pop rock singer. The offer shows me she’s on the national map. Singing the National Anthem at Madison Square Garden is an honor most people will never get. When they ask you, you have to say yes.”
Denis said his daughter understands there will be a big echo in the hall and that there will be a vocal delay. She is already preparing and looking forward to the afternoon rehearsal. And she is learning all the words.
“I didn’t want her to be one of those foolish Americans who didn’t know the words,” Stan Denis said. “This is big. It’ll be on TV. You know someone out there will hear it if you miss a word or make a mistake and I didn’t want that to happen.”
In 2014 Talia Denis released her latest full length album, “So Alive”.
Information for this post came from The Saratogian. - ReBath Of Albany

Meet Pianist, Performer Talia Denis. - Kiss 102.3 FM

Meet the 12 year old Prodigy Talia Denis. - Blue Toad Publications

"Winter Sun" written by Talia for her late grandfather. - The Times Union

The stage featured Talia Denis, a local 11-year-old singer-songerwriter and pianist, who has been building a fan base on the internet. Despite suffering from a cold, the young lady played a set of songs that has already attracted the attention of Radio Disney, Tony Levin and, at his invitation, a visit with Peter Gabriel. Currently she is recording her first album with the help of her band and A-list session players like Jerry Marotta, Sterling Campbell and Mike Visceglia. - See more at: http://www.nippertown.com/2012/10/05/live-pinhead-fest-pinhead-susans-92912/#more-82285 - Nipper Town

Meet Talia Denis, Kawai's youngest official artist. - Kawai USA

Meet Talia Denis, the 12 year old with an X32 - Behringer

Talia uses BBE in her studio and live. - BBE

This 10 year old just released a new CD - The Saratogian/Community News

Little girl has big dreams - Schenectady Gazzette

A local girl’s singing voice has caught the ear of a New York City production team resulting in a professionally produced CD and a music video.

Clifton Park resident Talia Denis is just 10 years old, but her latest single would make The Who’s Pete Townsend proud. At two minutes 57 seconds, the snappy syncopated guitar-driven “Walking on Top of the World” is classic pop. The lyrics are about feeling good and the video that accompanies it is filled with youthful kids having fun. The tune has a upbeat melody that sticks with you. It is not too long, not too short and has all the markings of a hit.

But what is most astounding about the tune are the vocals coming from Denis. Though she did not write the tune she has taken possession of it. The vocals are meaty, crisp, and clear. When she sings, “You’ll have a pocketful of stars because you’ll be walking on top of the world,” the honesty of youth is genuine. It is the voice of a professional. It is hard to believe she is just 10. Yet there she is singing on stage in between clips of her doing somersaults on a trampoline.

Denis’s story is an example of what happens when superior talent is nurtured properly and coupled with today’s technology and good fortune. The young girl had

been singing and playing piano for friends and family since she was five or six. At four years old she took over an empty microphone at a company outing and started belting out Sarah McLachlan songs a cappella during a band break.

At nine years old a friend of the family who works in the music business offered to write and produce a tune for her. “Brian Mansell is an Albany producer who has worked with Leon Russell,” Stan Denis, Talia’s father, said. “He liked her voice and said he’d write and produce a pop song for her. It’s the only pop song he’s ever written.”

Mansell wrote “This Time” for Denis. He played all the instruments on the recording and Denis sang the vocals. Stan Denis put a montage of family photos together and put the whole thing up on Youtube as a video aimed at his family. He added a notation just in case opportunity took a peek.

“I wrote that Talia was looking to go forward with her music career and gave a contact number,” Denis said. “Out of the blue I got a call two months later from two New York musicians who said they wanted to produce and record Talia.”



Zak Soulman and Mike Visceglia are well regarded professional musicians in New York City. Between them they have worked with Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Jackson Browne and the Trans Siberian Orchestra.

The two men said they were looking to grow someone to go forward in the music business. “They liked Talia’s voice and her spunk on the Youtube video.” Stan Denis said.

After a meeting in New York City with Stan and Talia the two musicians agreed to produce a four song extended play (EP) CD for Talia. The music was recorded at the famed Bearsville Recording Studios in Woodstock with Soulman and Visceglia on guitar and bass respectively. They added world class drummers Sterling Campbell and Jerry Marotta on the sessions along with a backup singer. Some of the tunes were written with Talia in mind and some came from a Nashville songwriter. Talia also made sure Mansell’s song was put on the EP.

“I was a little concerned the new producers wouldn’t be as nice as Brian (Mansell),” Talia Denis said, “but they were and it was fun to make music. I had a good time in the recording studio although doing a song over and over is not always fun.”

The single from the CD, “Walking on Top of the World” was released May 31 on iTunes and through Amazon. The video that accompanies it was paid for by Stan Denis. It was shot professionally in Craryville, Amsterdam and Clifton Park.

“She is a level eight gymnast and she trains five days a week,” Stan Denis said. “That determination she’s gained from gymnastics really comes out in the professionalism she displays in the studio. It’s the one word you hear over and over when the musicians describe working with her.”

In person Talia Denis is a petite girl with below the shoulder dark blond hair with an easy smile and a contagious giggle.

She appears to be a regular 10-year-old who likes music, as well as gymnastics and takes piano and vocal lessons. But when she speaks she has the demeanor of a young adult. She is thoughtful with her answers and speaks from a wealth of experience not normally found in a pre-teen. However, the word “fun” is sprinkled liberally throughout descriptions of her musical experiences accompanied by a wide smile.

To date her biggest live audience has been as the opening act for British pop band Deluca at the Egg in April where she performed four songs with piano and backing music tracks.


Though she has been watching and listening to concert DVDs of Peter Gabriel, Eric Clapton, Sarah McLachlan and Depeche Mode since the age of 3, Denis has also attended her share of “grown up” concerts, too.

“She’s been to SPAC, the Times Union Center, and Northern Lights to see people like James Taylor, Sheryl Crow, Tory Amos and John Mayer,” Stan Denis said.

“They all looked like they are having so much fun when they’re up there that I just wanted to do it too,” Talia Denis said. “I really like Sarah McLachlan. She writes and performs her own songs and that’s what I want to do. I’m working on my first song now.”

Father and daughter are fully aware of the pitfalls of the music business. The field is filled with one hit wonders and million selling records whose rights were sold for $100.

Both are making sure Talia has lots of avenues of opportunity.

“I’ve turned down two management offers already because they weren’t going after the right audience,” Stan Denis said. “I want her to perform for eight to 16-year-olds or the parents of those kids. Her music should be a role model. It’s only morally right.”

Though she would love to tour the country with her own backing band sharing the stage with McLachlan and Amos, Talia Denis eventually wants to grow up to help people as an adult. Her mother, Kimberly is a pharmacist.

“I’d like to become a cardiologist,” Talia said. “I’d like to go to medical school.”

“And she knows to do that you have to be the top of the top with your grades,” added her father. For now, Talia Denis continues to watch her family’s live concert DVDs, dissecting how performers can move their audiences through their music and showmanship.

She is also hard at work finishing up her first song about a friend moving away. - CN Weekly

CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. -- Talia Denis, 10, of Clifton Park is ready for the spotlight. She's talented and knowledgeable. Her deep and surprisingly mature appreciation for music is no joke, especially when asked who her influences are.

“Some of my musical influences are Sarah McLachlan, Peter Gabriel and Tori Amos,” said Talia Denis, budding pop star.

- See more at: http://albany.twcnews.com/content/535762/local-budding-pop-star-records-album/#sthash.G2rSQdAP.dpuf - Time Warner Your News Now YNN

Meet Talia Denis - IMPACT

Talia Denis is constantly in motion, and loving every minute of it... - WNYT