Gracie has never wanted to be anything other than an actor.  Her parents recall that she began answering the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" with "I want to be a star!" when she was 3 years old.  Gracie was always on the lookout for chances to be in pageants, plays or otherwise perform in front of an audience.  As long as she could just have fun participating and not worry about the winning and losing aspect of pageants, her parents indulged her wishes to be in this or that pageant.  In 2003, 9 year old Gracie won the Little Miss Middletown pageant by posting a higher score from the judges than any of the participants, including the older age groups.

About the same time, Gracie also began to take acting lessons as part of a local theatre troop called The Blue Apple Players.  She absolutely loved the experience and was instantly hooked on pursuing acting as her passion in life!

Gracie's first professional experience was a small role in the Kentucky Opera's production of Tosca at the Kentucky Center.

The next year, Gracie auditioned for a role in A Christmas Carol at the famed Actor's Theatre of Louisville.  Gracie was chosen to play several bit roles which kept her on stage in Louisville's holiday theatre tradition with Louisville's esteemed veteran actor William McNulty rendering the role of Scrooge each year.  The treatment Gracie received from Bill McNulty and the other wonderfully talented folks at Actor's Theatre solidified Gracie's commitment to being a professional actor.  Gracie reprised her supporting roles in A Christmas Carol the following year and continued to win over everyone at Actor's Theatre with her dedicated professionalism and her always positive disposition.  It became clear to anyone paying attention that little Gracie would be rather spend hours working with a cast to rehearse a play than to be anywhere else in the world.

Gracie's next theatre experience would be in with the Folsom Academy presentation of Broadway of Bust at Spalding University's auditorium.

As much as Gracie loved just being part of any kind of production, she was hungry for a chance to show that she could play a lead role in a professional play.  She got exactly that chance when she was chosen to play "Scout" in the Latent Muse production of To Kill a Mockingbird.  Now 10 years old and with the help of pigtails and overalls, Gracie transformed herself into Scout for several performances over consecutive weekends in a small theatre in South Louisville.  Her older brother, Warren, a talented but decidedly less ambitious actor, played the role of "Dill" to Gracie's "Scout".

It was Gracie's formidable portrayal of "Scout" that gave evidence that Gracie might be the kind of special talent who could take her acting to a larger stage.  Gracie's mom, Kiki Wallace, her Bonus Dad, Kik's husband, Steve Wallace, and her father, Kurt Maddox, agreed that if this was Gracie's passion that they would all do whatever they could to help her go as far with her dream as she could go.  Kiki sought the counsel of Louisville film and stage veterans like Vin Morreale, Jr. about Gracie's ability and if it would be crazy to spend the time, effort and money to give Hollywood a try for some reasonable and predetermined amount of time.

After sorting out all the very realistic advice and the obvious warnings about the hard reality one must face to give it a go in the land of broken dreams, Kiki and Steve decided that Kiki would move to Los Angeles with Gracie for six to nine months and just see what happened.  Gracie's brother had recently decided he wanted to live with his dad for awhile in rural Kentucky.  So, Gracie and Kiki packed their bags and drove cross-country together with little more than their love for each other, the support of a large and generous family and the idea that they were embarking on a great adventure.  So long as they kept the focus on the experience and not become attached to thoughts of "making it", then they knew nothing but good things would come of their tinsel town tour of duty.

Hollywood is all about having the right combination of talent, drive, perseverance, and representation.  Then, you've got to get a break somewhere along the line!  There are over 50,000 kids seeking roles in commercials, television and film in the United States.  There are maybe 20 major roles for a girl Gracie's age each year.  Once you subtract those that will be given to established stars like Dakota Fanning and Abigail Breslin, getting a lead role in a major Hollywood production makes winning the Kentucky Derby look like winning a cake walk!  The Hollywood "cake walk" has 50,000 squares and only a handful of cakes to give out.

As you can clearly see, if you are very sensitive to rejection, then going through the process of audition after audition after audition without even getting a callback becomes a horribly difficult experience for anyone.  For kids, handling this type of constant rejection has to be approached with constant attention to keeping the focus on the journey and not on the destination.

Gracie's first big breaks were landing great representation.   Within weeks of arriving and with absolutely no connections, Gracie was accepted by Ford Modelings kids division and began to go for modeling opportunities, eventually booking a major print and web ad campaign for the Limited Too "catazine", first appearing on the back cover and then in multiple pages of the following edition for Spring 2007.

The biggest break came when Jeremy Apody, then an agent's assistant with Abrams Artists Agency, a top Hollywood agency, pulled Gracie's head-shot from the stack of submissions that are continually sent to each major agency.  Jeremy saw something he liked and suggested that the agency consider bringing Gracie in for a meeting.  The meeting went well and Abrams agreed to represent Gracie and to send her out on appropriate auditions.  Abrams has both a commercial division and a theatrical division.  Gracie was signed to representation for both divisions, which we had been told would be a very long-shot by those with knowledge of the various agencies.

Jeremy's now an agent and along with Abrams principals Wendi Green and Jennifer Millar, Abrams has certainly lived up to their reputation and have been absolutely wonderful to work with while doing a fantastic job for Gracie!

 A raw talent like Gracie needs the right mentor, coach and manager to really develop their talent and land significant work in the entertainment business.  Abrams introduced Gracie to Ms. Marnie Cooper, a well-respected acting coach who also runs her own management company, Marnie Cooper Management.  Let's just say that Gracie LOVES working with Marnie!  With Marnie's gentle and capable guidance, Gracie is beginning to transition from another raw talent into an actor worthy of the professional title.

As an actor, Gracie's resume continues to build and add to her credibility with Hollywood's casting directors.  Still, exposure still counts for a lot in any highly competitive world and exposure is a difficult commodity to procure in a world where everyone wants some and only those who don't need it can afford to buy it.  Every debutante needs her coming out party and every actor needs a stage where others can see them and take notice of their potential.

Enter Dr. Phil and his producers at Paramount.

A friend had told Kiki about an planned Dr. Phil contest for aspiring child stars who wanted to get their "big break" in Hollywood.  With lots of reservations, Kiki and Gracie submitted a tape as outlined on the Dr. Phil website to be considered for the contest.  Dr. Phil's producer contacted Kiki some days later with the news that their tape submission was being considered.  After some back and forth and what seemed like indecision from Dr. Phil's folks, Gracie and Kiki were invited to compete in the Dr. Phil House for an opportunity to have some fun, maybe win some prizes and possibly get that "big break" every kid in Hollywood dreams about in that quiet moment each night before they go to sleep.  The almost didn't accept.

Gracie and Kiki moved into the Hollywood Renaissance hotel with several other moms and aspiring child actors.  They were driven to the Dr. Phil House nearby each day to compete for cool prizes like big screen TVs and modeling contracts.  Real Hollywood acting coaches and casting directors would be there as well as Dr. Phil's cameras capturing every word and movement on tape to be edited and presented as 3 day Dr. Phil special during May's sweeps.  Seemingly, here was a huge opportunity and without a doubt, it was even more of an opportunity than they'd dreamed.

As expected, the Dr. Phil angle presented both Gracie and Kiki with as much of an opportunity to disgrace themselves and embarrass their families as it offered them to get the valuable exposure and experience every participant by competing in this contest.  Kiki and Gracie spent considerable time watching and reading everything Dr. Phil had done with child actors and their families in the past.  So, they knew very well that Dr. Phil was going to be looking for signs of the train wrecks that have earned the title of "stage moms".

If you've seen the shows, then you know that the cast assembled by Dr. Phil's producers didn't disappoint!

Fortunately for Gracie, her mom displayed the same loving support and composure that has been instrumental in Gracie becoming a talented, smart and grounded young woman.  While the wheels were coming off the wagons for some of the mom/kid teams during the contest, Gracie and Kiki stuck together like wet tongues to a cold cistern.  Mostly, they just kept telling each other to have fun and do their best!

As the week of competitions progressed, it became clear that Gracie was becoming the front-runner for getting the "big break" that Dr. Phil promised.  Of course, the environment created by the show's producers also displayed some of the worst kinds of human behavior when overly competitive parents start getting their inner Holly Hunter Texas cheerleader activated.  With cries that the show was rigged and that our little Gracie was a Dr. Phil trick planted into the competition to show them up, Gracie kept smiling and kept being the same girl that won over hearts from Centertown, Kentucky to Actor's Theatre of Louisville.

The Dr. Phil show culminated with a live show in front of a studio audience.  Of course, there would also be a few million of Dr. Phil's avid fans watching in a few weeks once the editing was complete and the show aired to a national audience second only to Oprah's audience.  The big finale would be just these talented kids doing their thing live.  The kid's big break would come down to an empty stage, a big spotlight, a live audience and a panel of hand-selected Hollywood experts who would choose an overall winner.

Gracie stepped up to the mike and delivered a near perfectly performed monologue written by her friend and early supporter, Vin Morreale, Jr.

Once each kid had performed, Dr. Phil went to his panel of experts to find out who would get their big break and be the winner of his "Make My Kid a Star" contest.

And the winner was...

GRACIE MADDOX!

Gracie knows that there's a long road from winning Dr. Phil's contest to becoming a great actor.  She knows that she'll need the same perseverance, great attitude and willingness to work very hard when the lights and cameras are nowhere around before she'll be the kind of actor she's always dreamed of becoming.  Fortunately, Gracie also knows that it is always the path the matters so much more than any destination.

Gracie just returned to Los Angeles after a great summer in Kentucky with her friends and family.  Literally, she was back auditioning and working with her agents and coach from the very first day back.  She's already been on several auditions and has gotten a couple of callbacks for major roles.  As always, she takes it all in stride and focuses on what she can do today to be the best that she can be.

Gracie hopes you never stop believing in your dreams and she promises you that she'll never stop believing in her dreams!