Director Alexander Payne’s latest movie, the Oscar-nominated Nebraska, features a performance by Devin Ratray (BFA 1998 Film and Video ) as Cole, the money-driven nephew of main character Woody Grant (Bruce Dern), an aging, alcoholic who is wrongly convinced that he has won a million-dollar sweepstakes. 
Other cast members include Bob Odenkirk (Breaking Bad) and Will Forte (Saturday Night Live). Ratray, who has worked in television and film since the mid-1980s (you may remember him as Macaulay Culkin’s boorish brother in Home Alone), next appears in Construction, a romantic comedy scheduled for a 2014 release.
In other entertainment world news, three BFA Cartooning graduates have been working on Cartoon Network productions in addition to pursuing their own projects. Hilary Florido (2007) is a writer and storyboard artist for the Emmy Award-winning Regular Show, which is about a blue jay and raccoon who work as park groundskeepers. She is also a freelance illustrator, a painter and printmaker, and writes and illustrates her own “mini comics,” one of which was shortlisted for the Best American Comics series.
Thomas Herpich (2002) is a writer and storyboarder for the channel’s popular Adventure Time series; he created the character of Lemongrab (a.k.a. Earl of Lemongrab), whose “high-strung” personality and short fuse create dysfunction all around him. Herpich has also published a number of comics, most recently the collection White Clay One Shot (Adhouse Books, 2012).
And Jon Vermilyea (2006) has done freelance background, character and prop design for such productions as Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, Problem Solverz and new show Uncle Grandpa. He’s also designed a series of Adventure Time-themed wallets, in addition to his independent animation, illustration and printmaking work.