Rainey Qualley

Rainey Qualley stepped into film in 2012 with Mighty Fine, a drama in which she played the daughter of her real-life mother, Andie MacDowell, alongside Chazz Palminteri (Wikipedia). It's a solid debut — grounded, family-facing, and low-key enough that it didn't immediately announce her as someone chasing blockbusters. The 2014 western Falcon Song followed, and then a guest appearance on Mad Men in 2015, which put her in front of a much larger television audience even if briefly. The 2018 sci-fi film Perfect, directed by Eddie Alcazar, was probably the most visually distinctive thing she'd attached herself to up to that point — Alcazar's work has a hallucinatory quality that doesn't look like anything else being made right now, and Qualley's presence in it suggested she wasn't just taking safe roles. That same year, she turned up as herself in Ocean's 8 (TMDB), a cameo that's easy to miss but fun if you catch it. Her role in The Shuroo Process (2021) — where she played characters named Katie and Nadia — added another thriller to the list. Parallel to all of this, she's been releasing music as Rainsford. "Me and Johnny Cash" came out in 2015, "Passionate" in 2019, and the Carolina Country Music Fest has featured her on its lineup (carolinacountrymusicfest.com). The music career isn't a side project — it's arguably the main event. She's also appeared in campaigns for Louis Vuitton and Gucci. Looking ahead, Night Driver, Green River Killer, and Blowback were all reportedly in post-production as of 2026, which could shift the balance back toward film.