In some circles, they’re known as the “Amish Girls.”
Actors Denise Gossett and Riley Beeson of Lake Mary are mother and daughter — and they play mother and daughter on UpTV’s “Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries” series. It’s the first time they have played roles that mirror their real-life relationship, and they recently wrapped up filming of the series’ second season.
“It’s like ‘Little House on the Prairie’ meets Nancy Drew,” Gossett said of the show, which started as a 2025 TV movie. In the series, Gossett plays a Midwest Amish woman who becomes friends with an urban transplant, played by Galadriel Stineman. The two women get entangled in mysteries as they navigate friendship amid cultural differences.
Gossett and Beeson travel to Ohio’s Amish country to film the series, and Gossett says their professional relationship is as solid as their personal one. She offers advice to her daughter, who is now 18, but also is interested in hearing Beeson’s perspective on things.
“I ask her, ‘Do you have any notes?’” she said. “Because she sees things differently.”
The cast and crew are tight-knit — and “pickleball obsessed,” Beeson said — during the two-month filming schedule. She has enjoyed being given the chance to shadow the production’s cinematographer and work on the show’s social-media team.
“She’s so sad to leave” when filming ends, said Gossett.
“Wrap day is the worst day ever,” Beeson agreed.
But both agree that living in Central Florida is the right place for them, and not just because they are fans of Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights.
“I have a good balance,” Beeson said of traveling for work but coming home to Lake Mary. “Here, I get to have both worlds.”
Gossett grew up in Longwood and graduated with a theater degree from Rollins College in Winter Park. She went to California, where — like most actors — she “struggled and struggled and struggled,” she said, but also found work in theater, movies and as a guest on TV shows such as “Veronica Mars” and “The New Adventures of Old Christine.”
Earthquake damage to her apartment led her to crash with a friend, whose brother was Todd Beeson. “He was not my type, I was not interested in him,” Gossett said. At least not at first. But Gossett was talked into a date, and the two eventually married.
“I always say an earthquake brought us together,” Gossett said.
After having Riley, the urban sprawl of Southern California lost appeal as a place for a young family.
“When she turned 3, we thought, ‘Do we really want to raise her in LA?” Gossett said.
So they relocated to Central Florida. Gossett was nervous about the effect the move would have on her career — but it turned out she needn’t have worried. She has worked steadily, just with more travel involved.
Unlike her mother, Beeson didn’t see herself in show business.
“Growing up, I didn’t have any interest,” she said. “I thought, ‘That’s my mom’s world.’”
There were glimmers that she had talent: The pair would read Harry Potter books together, with Gossett giving the characters different accents and voices. When it was Riley’s turn to read, she would follow her mother’s lead and create her own voices as well.
Then Gossett landed a role in the Dean Cain movie “Faith” and happened to mention to the producers she had a young daughter. It turned out there was a role for her, and Beeson gave acting a try. She loved it.
By the time she booked “Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries” — both mom and daughter were cast on the same day — her mind was made up: “I was like, ‘This is what I was born to do.’”
To maintain her new career, Beeson was homeschooled — Dad, who works in the stock market, was in charge of teaching math, Mom says with a laugh — and she has an associate degree from Seminole State College.
With everything going so well in show business, Beeson is unsure if she’ll go for a four-year degree: “I’m a little focused on my career right now,” she said.
She’s getting noticed. Beeson recently picked up a Young Artist Award in California for her work on “Sugarcreek.”
“I didn’t think I had a chance,” she said. “It was such a wonderful surprise, it was a really fun experience.”
And she got to reconnect with Brianna Reyes, another Central Floridian who picked up a prize at the awards ceremony for an original song she wrote.
“I knew her before the Young Artist Awards, and now we’ve gotten even closer since then,” Beeson said.
When she’s not auditioning or filming, Beeson writes books. Her “Letters to Heaven,” about a girl who tries to rekindle her faith after her grandmother dies by writing to God, has sold some 5,000 copies. She’s currently working on a Christmas-themed young-adult rom-com.
She also has been taking photos professionally for years at weddings, bridal showers and the like, and that business is ramping up.
“It’s not a normal childhood,” she said. “But I love what I do. I wouldn’t trade it.”
The pair also travel to conventions and other events to promote “Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries,” which will premiere its new season this spring on UpTV and the Up Faith & Family streaming service. That’s one of the places the “Amish girls” phrase gets used.
“People have even started to recognize me here,” Beeson said. “I’ll be at a football game and people say, ‘You’re the Amish girl.’”
They hope the series gets picked up for a third season, not only because of the work but because of the friends they have made on set and within the Amish community. Meanwhile, Gossett is filming Hallmark and Lifetime movies around the Southeast, and Beeson is up for a role on a Disney Channel series.
They are grateful that “Amish Sugarcreek Mysteries” has allowed them to work together.
“We’ve wanted to play mother and daughter so badly,” Gossett said, as Beeson nodded. Then Mom smiled as her daughter added: “Our bond flows through the screen.”
