Why Alicia From Fear The Walking Dead Looks So Familiar
In 2012, AMC released "Fear the Walking Dead," an ongoing post-apocalyptic drama series set in the same narrative universe as AMC's "The Walking Dead." The story follows a blended family as they struggle to survive the onset of the zombie apocalypse. Later, as their numbers deplete, the story shifts focus to follow Morgan Jones (Lennie James), a character from AMC's flagship series. While "Fear the Walking Dead," like all long-running television shows, features a constantly shifting cast of characters, one person has been there for the whole story: Alicia Clark.
Alicia started "Fear the Walking Dead" as a normal teenager, struggling to adapt to her surroundings, but as the world shifted and became infinitely more lethal, she grew. She grew so much that fans often describe her as the emotional core of the entire production. Season 7 offered a soft, open-ended conclusion for Alicia, allowing her to stay gone or return, as the actress may desire... and that actress might, or might not. It really just depends on where she wants to take her career next, because Alycia Debnam-Carey seems to be on the cusp of many great things.
Debnam-Carey 's resume only features 20 or so acting credits, but no small amount of them are significant roles. Here's where you might have seen her before.
Alycia Debnam-Carey was Kaitlyn, a poor kid just trying to survive, in Into the Storm
In 2014, Warner Bros. Pictures released "Into the Storm," a found-footage disaster film. The story follows the inhabitants of a small town in Oklahoma, and a group of storm chasers, as they struggle to survive a disastrous weather anomaly. The found-angle is split between two perspectives, one for each primary group of characters. The first perspective follows two brothers at a high school graduation, Trey (Nathan Kress) and Donnie Fuller (Max Deacon), who are using their camera to record messages from the outgoing seniors for a time capsule. The second perspective follows two cameramen in the storm-chasing crew, Jacob Hodges (Jeremy Sumpter) and Daryl Karley (Arlen Escarpeta), as they attempt to film the most dangerous storm to ever exist. It's important to note that these characters are not necessarily the stars — poor Jacob gets axed pretty early in by a literal firenado — but they are "eyes" through which it is viewed.
Alycia Debnam-Carey portrays Kaitlyn Johnston, Donnie's love interest. It might come as no surprise to learn that a secondary character's love story in a natural disaster flick is not given a great deal of screen time. With that context in mind, Kaitlyn is mostly just kind of ... present. She does get to film a sweet message to her loved ones, though, while she thinks she's going to drown in a collapsing paper mill. But Donnie's dad, Gary Fuller (Richard Armitage), and Allison Stone (Sarah Wayne Callies) swoop in and save the day. Well, they save the kids. The town is still super destroyed.
Alycia Debnam-Carey was Mary, a child of prophecy, in The Devil's Hand
In 2014, Roadside Attractions released "The Devil's Hand," a direct-to-video horror film. The story follows a group of six young girls who are raised in a small Amish community that believes, because they were all born on the sixth day of the sixth month (that's three sixes in a row, for anyone keeping score), one of them will grow up to become the titular servant of Satan, thus fulfilling a terrible prophecy. Just after birth, the first of the six girls is murdered by her mother. The rest of the surviving children are saved a similar fate when Jacob (Rufus Sewell), one of the girl's fathers, points out that killing children is bad, actually.
Jacob's efforts allow the five infants to grow up ... mostly. Just before their collective 18th birthday, a mysterious killer — who's later revealed to be Susan (Stacey Edwards), one of the girl's mothers — kills them all, save one, thus guaranteeing her to be the child spoken of in the aforementioned terrible prophecy, the one that survives, and the one that commits atrocities upon the community.
Alycia Debnam-Carey portrays Mary, the daughter of Jacob and Susan. Turns out, they had very different opinions as to what constituted good parenting. In an ironic twist, Mary actually does become the Devil's Hand. Her last act in the film is to massacre all of the elders. In fairness, they were going to do the same to her.
Alycia Debnam-Carey was Lexa, a devoted but lousy leader, in The 100
In 2014, the CW released "The 100," a post-apocalyptic sci-fi series loosely based on a body of written works of the same name by Kass Morgan. The production ran for seven seasons and ended in 2020. The story follows what's left of humanity after a disastrous nuclear war ravages the planet. The show gets its title from 100 juvenile delinquents who, almost 100 years after the atomic devastation, are forcefully jettisoned from a decaying space station colony to discover whether Earth can sustain life once again ... or if it's still an irradiated hellhole.
On the surface, the 100 encounter roving tribes dubbed the Grounders, vicious cannibals dubbed the Reapers, and bunker people dubbed the Mountain Men. These groups, along with the space colonists (whom ultimately return out of sheer necessity), spend most of their time fighting over the dwindling resources Earth can provide. Also, at some point, there's also interdimensional travel and immortal aliens, so that's neat.
Alycia Debnam-Carey portrays Lexa, a Grounder of the Wood clan. She creates the Coalition, a united front of 12 Grounder clans with a common enemy — the Mountain Men. She appears in Season 2 (2014-2015) and Season 3 (2016), first as an opponent of the "Sky People" and then later as their ally. And then later as their opponent again ... and then later as their ally again. And then later as their leader's lover. Talk about a whirlwind romance, right? Lexa doesn't see Season 4 because she is accidentally shot by a religious leader in her clan who disapproves of her being with Clarke Griffin (Eliza Taylor).
Alycia Debnam-Carey was Laura, a social butterfly with terrible conflict resolution skills, in Friend Request
Trigger Warning: This entry contains discussions of suicide.
In 2016, Warner Bros. Pictures released "Friend Request," a supernatural horror film. The story follows a young woman in college who accepts a Facebook friend request from another student and then spends the subsequent 80 some-odd minutes of screen time regretting that decision. Because that student, Marina Mills (Liesl Ahlers), proceeds to kill herself, become an evil spirit, and use social media as a harbinger of the demonic crimes she will commit. She uses Facebook to post undeletable videos of the young woman's friends' killing themselves on her wall.
Alycia Debnam-Carey portrays Laura Woodson, the young woman who decided to reach out to her fellow student. While Marina definitely is to blame for her demented actions, and "Friend Request" goes out of its way to prove that Marina has a history of problematic behavior, the inciting incident is Laura lying about a party to her and then posting about the party online ... which leads to all of her friends get murdered by demon wasps because of it. It's also worth mentioning that, in the year of our lord 2016, Hollywood released a film that stated 800 friends on Facebook is an impressive number, actually.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).