16 JUNE 18, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Glendale native discusses her rise to stardom
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
EDAVENPORT@QNS.COM
@QNS
When asked about how she got into acting,
18-year-old Cree Cicchino says that it happened
kind of by accident.
While growing up in Glendale, Cicchino described
herself as an energetic child who was a
dancer at heart. When she was 11 or 12 years old,
Cicchino’s mother decided to put her into acting
classes.
“There was a showcase where a lot of professionals
from the entertainment industry showed
up,” said Cicchino. “After the showcase, I got my
first agent and manager. About nine months later,
I booked my first project and that took me out to
Los Angeles.”
At the age of 13, Cicchino landed a role on Nickelodeon’s
live-action comedy “Game Shakers.”
The show, which was executive produced by Dan
Schneider (the mastermind behind a number of
Nickelodeon programming), centered around a
pair of seventh-graders who made an app for a
school project that ended up taking off.
Cicchino adjusted to set life in no time.
“It was so bizarre. I was sitting there thinking, ‘I
should be in Queens in a public high school right now,’”
said Cicchino. “But you get used to it pretty quickly.”
“Game Shakers” ran for three seasons and landed
Cicchino nominations for Best Young Actor – Television
at the 2017 and 2018 Imagen Awards for her
work on the show. Not long after, she booked a new
show on Netflix called “Mr. Iglesias,” a series starring
comedian Gabriel Iglesias that explores what
his life could have been like had he not gone into
comedy.
Iglesias stars as the titular character, who is a
history teacher at the show’s Wilson High School
and has a class of misfit yet gifted kids. Cicchino
plays Marisol Fuentes, a smart and determined
Photo courtesy of Persona PR
student (who is probably Mr. Iglesias’ dream student,
according to Cicchino), who grew up as the
daughter of a single mom and works three jobs to
help her family pay the bills.
“She’s an incredibly smart and gifted student who
is burdened by her circumstance,” said Cicchino.
“She’s determined to not let her circumstance limit
her future.”
Cicchino said that the change from Nickelodeon
to Netflix was like night and day.
“With ‘Game Shakers,’ it was hectic — doing
school on set, show promos, working six-day
weeks. Plus, since it was Nickelodeon, there was
a lot of slime,” said Cicchino. “Netflix is way more
calm and there’s more room to play around with
the show. There’s also a live audience, which was
new.”
Netflix is also distributing the movie that is
Cicchino’s first venture into film, “The Sleepover.”
The film centers around a family who learns that
their mother has a criminal past and is in the witness
protection program. Four kids then go on
an adventure to get to the bottom of the family’s
past.
Cicchino plays Mim, the main character’s best
friend who thinks that she’s going to a regular
sleepover but gets pulled into the craziness that
ensues.
“Mim is that character in horror movies when
everyone else wants to check out the noise in the
basement and she’s like, ‘Nope,’” said Cicchino.
“She would mostly prefer not to do what she ends
up doing in the film.”
Making the transition from television to film
was interesting and fun, particularly shifting from
being on a set for work to moving on location.
“It was cool going from multi-cam on TV to single
cam, and having a full, four-wall house to shoot in.
Being on location was fun. There is a lot of ‘hurry
up and wait’ with film, so there was a lot of sitting
and hanging out with the rest of the cast,” said Cicchino.
“They’re both super fun, but since I’ve done
more TV, I’m itching to do more film.”
Cicchino hopes to explore other avenues of film
and television, but for right now she is focusing
on acting and building her career there. However,
in these uncertain and historic times, Cicchino
thinks it’s important that she uses her platform
for advocacy.
“This is a historic time right now with the Black
Lives Matter movement,” said Cicchino. “I’m still
learning. A lot of people are finding their voice
and I want to use my platform for advocacy.”
Season two of “Mr. Iglesias” is set to premiere
on June 17, 2020. “The Sleepover” is expected to
be released this summer.
Dime announces new president and executive VP
BY QNS STAFF
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNW
Dime Community Bank announced
the promotion of two
executives last week.
Stuart H. Lubow, the former chief
banking offi cer, has been promoted
to president, and John Romano has
been promoted to serve as Dime’s
executive vice president and chief
retail offi cer.
Lubow, who has been a banking
executive for more than 40 years,
joined Dime in 2017 as a senior executive
vice president and head of
Business Banking. In addition, he
served as an executive with Community
National Bank, Community State
Bank, Garden State Bank, Dollar Dry
Dock Bank and People’s Bank.
Romano also joined Dime in 2017
and has also had a lengthy career in
community banking. He’s worked as
an executive at First Central Savings
Bank, Amalgamated Bank, People’s
United Bank, Bank of Smithtown and
Astoria Federal Savings.
“In the past three years and under
John’s direction, Business Banking
has grown into a strong and critical
part of the Bank,” Lubow said of
Romano’s promotion. “With retail
and business banking, along with
operations, under the same leadership,
I look forward to continued
collaboration and growth in these
areas in the future.”
“Stu’s promotion to president
recognizes his outstanding leadership,
customer-centric focus,
enterprise-wide vision, and our
Business Banking division’s strong
performance to-date,” said Kenneth
J. Mahon, the bank’s CEO. “In a short
span of time, under Stu’s leadership,
Dime has made signifi cant strides to
become a well-respected community
commercial bank. The Business Banking
division’s strong loan and deposit
growth has enabled us to increase
our core net interest margin for six
consecutive quarters, diversify our
balance sheet and grow sources of
non-interest income.”
“Stu has contributed tremendously
to our long-term goal of becoming the
best business bank in New York. I very
much look forward to working closely
with Stu in the years ahead and creating
value for our customers, employees
and shareholders,” Mahon added.
Dime Community Bank was founded
in 1864. With headquarters in
Brooklyn, the bank has 28 branches
throughout Queens, Brooklyn, the
Bronx and Long Island.
Stuart H. Lubow and John Romano Photos courtesy of Dime Community Bank.
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