Candice "Candy" Cain (born September 23, 1976) is an American writer and director known best for her made-for-TV films that take place during the Christmas season, such as Ivy & Mistletoe and Joy and Hope. Cain has also written and directed several television series, including New Dogs, Old Tricks and Little Cupid.
Filmography[]
| Production | Year | Position(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Directing | Writing | ||
| Joy and Hope | 2020 | Director | Writer |
| Ivy & Mistletoe | |||
| Deck the Heart | 2021 | ||
| The Maltese Holiday | |||
| A Holiday Homecoming | |||
| Magic in Mount Holly | |||
| Santa's Second Wife | 2022 | ||
| Holiday in the Hamptons | 2024 | ||
| A Jar Full of Christmas | |||
Early Career[]
Candy Cain, born Candice Terese Cook, started her career modeling as a child, then moved into theatrical productions around her hometown of Brookhaven, NY. In the early 1990s, she appeared on "The New Mickey Mouse Club" and competed in pageants. She continued modeling as a teenager and throughout college at The George Washington University in Washington, DC.
While in college, she discovered her passion for writing and directing. She produced three original plays between 1995 and 1998: What Happened Last Night, Days Like This and Stay. Her first play, What Happened Last Night, would later be adapted into a film and released in the USA and Canada by Sony Pictures.
Acting[]
In August of 2000, Candice moved to Anchorage, AK to attend the University of Alaska - Anchorage to obtain her MFA in Creative Writing. She also started the first improvisational comedy acting troupe in Alaska, called Gagged & Bound. Sadly, in December 2000 tragedy struck her family when her aunt was killed in a car accident and she moved back to New York. She officially dropped out of grad school in December 2000.
In January 2001, Candice moved to Los Angeles to pursue her acting career. Within three months, she found herself cast in films and television shows in small roles. She worked behind the camera on a couple of projects, but spent most of her time in front of the camera in regular roles on shows like ER, CSI and Deadwood. She moved back to New York in 2004, where she started acting in theater again. She left acting for good once she became pregnant with her twins in 2008.
Writing[]
Candice wrote her first script at the age of nine, as a third grader at Brookhaven Elementary School. The script was titled Journey to Chocolateland and was written for her enrichment class. It was the first time that a student wrote a script. The short film was performed by the students in her class and filmed by their teacher, Mrs. Steiner.
Candice excelled at writing in high school, dabbling in a variety of genres: short stories, poetry, songs, scripts and journalism. She took extra English classes and won a scholarship for her writing.
She attended The George Washington University from 1994 - 1998, where she majored in Dramatic Literature and minored in English, Theatre and Creative Writing. Three of her full-length plays were produced on campus, two of which she also directed. However, none of her scripts were ever published while she was in college.
In 2005, Bakers Plays of Boston published three of her children's plays: The Lion and The Mouse, The Lovesick Cat and The Woodsmen and The Fairy. Two years later, her adaptation of "The Tortoise and The Hare" was also published. Soon, Bakers Plays was taken over by Samuel French, and all of Candice's scripts were accepted into their catalog.
Candice started writing for the screen in the 2015 Disability Film Challenge, where she wore the hats of writer and director. The film Candice and her team created was called "Unspoken" and was a finalist. The 3 minute film went on to win Best Selection at the 2015 Olive Tree International Film Festival. Candice was asked if she had a full-length film script to produce by a friend, which led to the production of her first full-length film, What Happened Last Night.