Two actresses on Beyond the Gates were called on to play emotionally fraught scenes during August. They both gave impressive performances.
August 2025 Performers of the Month
Jasmine Burke
Jasmine Burke broke our hearts and then stitched them back up when June reunited with Ron and Cecile, aka Tyrell (Jaden Lucas Miller) and Samantha (Najah Jackson), for the first time in years. She was anxious and scared, but determined to meet with the children she had given up for adoption.
Yes, nobody called CPS on her. June had a severe addiction to drugs. She knew she had gotten to the point where she could no longer raise her kids the way they deserved to be raised. So she decided to give them up and made the call. And as a result, Martin (Brandon Claybon) and Smitty (Mike Manning) adopted them. And the husbands gave those two kids the stars and the moon.
The first meeting was awkward and tentative. However, June told Tyrell and Samantha what had become of her. She told them how she had lost herself and her memory and lived on the streets. She commented on how amazing a job Dad and Pops did raising the kids she gave up.
Plus, she dealt with their anger at being swallowed up in the system because of her. Burke’s performance had this underlying thread of hope, however: hope that they could see that she ultimately made the right choice and hope that they could somehow fit her into their future.
In their second meeting, the walls came crumbling down on her hope when Tyrell and Samantha rejected any future with her. But she took it all in stride. June was happy that she achieved a sense of closure, and she used that as inspiration to get her life back on track. It was an uplifting button on a heartbreaking story.
Burke did a great job with the entire story arc, especially when June confronted her past and reunited with her kids. We hope we will get to see the next part of June’s journey.
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RhonniRose Mantilla
We felt we had to add RhonniRose Mantilla after her character’s kidnapping.
Chelsea’s ex drugged and abducted her. It turned out that Allison (Brianna Roberts) became obsessed with the former model, current purse designer, and social media influencer. The second Chelsea woke up in the bedroom of that house, Mantilla showed us what she is made of as an actress.
In quick succession, she had to play the fear of facing this unpredictable, unhinged woman she once thought could be her future, and then the horror at finding out that none of it was real. Allison had planned everything out since the beginning, including the way they met as well as her fake husband, who was really some random escort she hired on an app.
Most of all, however, we got to see Chelsea’s courage and badassness and how she is her mother’s daughter. While chained to a bed, she has done whatever she can to fend off Allison’s advances. She has fought back with her words and wasn’t beyond getting back physically, either. Plus, you have to love a girl who can flip a table expertly.
Thanks to Mantilla, we’ve learned more about Chelsea in this one week than in the six months prior combined.
