Actress Galadriel Stineman is back in Middle America, and she loves it.
The Cincinnati native and Northern Kentucky University graduate — who played girlfriend Cassidy in 2013 on ABC's The Middle sitcom, set in a fictional Indiana town — has moved her family back to Northern Kentucky while she stars in a new TV series filmed in Ohio.
“I had to leave here 20 years ago to do what I wanted to do [in Hollywood],” says Stineman, who appeared in 14 episodes of The Middle, which was filmed in Burbank, Calif.
Now she and her husband, actor Kevin Joy, can pursue acting here (thanks to Ohio’s film tax credits); teach their Stineman/Joy Studios acting classes online; write novels; and raise their two sons.
Stineman and Joy premiere their drama series, Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries, at 9 p.m. Thursday, April 23, on UPtv, a cable channel available on Spectrum, Dish and DirecTV, and streaming on Philo and Frndly.
In the series, based on the best-selling Christian Guideposts books, Stineman plays Cheryl Cooper, who escapes to an Amish community in Sugarcreek, Ohio, about 100 miles northeast of Columbus, to manage a gift shop after a failed engagement. Cheryl uses her “outside perspective” and sharp instincts to solve perplexing situations before police officers.
“We shoot in the Sugarcreek and Walnut Creek area. We use New Philadelphia as the big city,” she says. New Philadelphia, county seat for Tuscarawas County, has a population of 17,677.
Born at Cincinnati’s Jewish Hospital, Stineman was named Galadriel after The Lord of the Rings character in the book her pregnant mother was reading. Stineman was raised in Bellevue, Dayton and Newport, Ky., and attended Newport Central Catholic High School.
After graduating from Northern Kentucky University in 2007, she headed to Los Angeles, where she enjoyed success in TV, films and video games. Her credits include This Is Us, NCIS, George & Mandy’s First Marriage, Shameless, True Blood, Community, Glee, Rizzoli & Isles, Junkyard Dog and Until Dawn, the interactive horror game.
Her first break came in 2009 when she appeared in Fame and Ben 10: Alien Swarm. She also met her husband, a California native, that year. They married in 2010 and had a baby boy in 2011. Their son Atticus was 2 years old when Stineman started her 14-episode run as teenage girlfriend Cassidy for Axl Heck (Charlie McDermott) on Patricia Heaton's ABC sitcom.
“Nobody knows that when I was on The Middle, I was married with a child! I pretty much played a teenager until I was 30,” says the now-35-year-old.
In 2017, Stineman filmed Runaway Romance, a TV movie set in Amish country and shot in Glasgow, Horse Cave, Cave City and Munfordville, Ky. She’s made three Amish-themed movies with her husband, Follow Your Heart (2019), Plus One at an Amish Wedding (2022) and Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries: Blessings in Disguise (2025).
While working on a project in Nashville, she and her husband drove up to her old Northern Kentucky stomping grounds. It seemed like a good fit, particularly after COVID-19 shut down the entertainment industry.
“Nashville didn’t feel like us. I said, ‘We should be in Kentucky.’ We had been looking for a place outside of L.A. since 2021. The Cincinnati area is a great location because you’re close to Chicago and [productions in] Atlanta and New York City,” she says.
“We knew we wanted to move back to the Cincinnati area in summer of 2025, before our oldest boy started high school."
They rented a house in Fort Thomas and enrolled Atticus in Highlands High School while shooting the first season of Sugarcreek last summer. They recently sold their home in Los Angeles so they can start looking to buy a house here.
Stineman started teaching acting in Los Angeles in 2013, as ABC aired her episodes of The Middle. She says her acting technique master course on the online Udemy site is “the highest-rated acting course,” with more than 6,000 students around the world. During COVID-19 the couple opened the Stineman/Joy Studios, a referral-only business, she says. They each have an office in their Fort Thomas home.
“We’re kind of a unique acting studio. We’re the top referral agency for the big talent agencies in L.A. and New York. We've worked with former Disney stars who want to expand into other roles. We've worked with comedians or influencers who want to become actors. One agency has called us their 'fixer.' We have clients all over the world.” She “dreams of opening a physical place in Greater Cincinnati for their studio,“ and accepting local students.
Since 2021, the couple has been producers on Amish projects for executive producer Chevonne O'Shaugnessy, the co-founder and president of American Cinema International.
“I do script consulting. And the actors can come talk to me. I help connect them with their roles,” she says.
Stineman also has written two uplifting romance novels — Love Against the Autumn Sky and Planted in Christmas — under the pen name Willa Fredric. That’s a nod to her father, William Fredric Stineman, who had written several unpublished novels when he died when Galadriel was 18.
Her other dream is adapting Love Against the Autumn Sky into a movie, and shooting it in Greater Cincinnati.
“How cool would it be to drop the kids off at school, and go to the set? That’s my dream.”
That seems within reach here with Greater Cincinnati’s very active film scene. She praises the tireless efforts of Film Cincinnati President/CEO Kristen Schlotman for bringing major films to the area starring Robert Redford, Bruce Willis, Regina King, Nicole Kidman, Robert De Niro, Anne Hathaway, Glenn Close, Ben Stiller, Mariah Carey, Mark Ruffalo, Jessica Biel, Debra Messing, John Travolta, George Clooney and Cate Blanchett.
“Kristen was ahead of her time. She is such a great advocate for this area. We want to keep it snowballing.”
Stineman has no regrets leaving Los Angeles for her hometown in the middle of America. When she must travel to the West Coast for a job or an event, she looks forward to unwinding in Fort Thomas.
“We can feel a difference in the energy here. When we get back here, it’s like a big exhale. From our driveway, its only four minutes [to] Downtown. And we’re 20 minutes away from an equestrian center where Kevin is training for the second season we’re shooting this summer. There are more horses in Season 2.”
“We go to every festival. It’s so affordable here. It’s so friendly.”
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