Scott M. Gimple is paying tribute to late Walking Dead actress Kelley Mack, who died on Saturday at the age of 33 after a battle with glioma of the central nervous system. Gimple, who served as showrunner on seasons 4 through 8 of the AMC zombie drama before he was promoted to the network’s chief content officer of The Walking Dead Universe, fondly remembered Mack as part of the TWD family.
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“Sad news about a massively talented member of the TWD family,” he wrote in a post on X. “We’re grateful we got to work with Kelley Mack and share her magic with the world.”
Mack played Addy, a member of the Hilltop Colony, on the acclaimed ninth season of The Walking Dead showran by executive producer Angela Kang. Mack’s Addeline appeared in five episodes between 2018 and 2019, befriending Henry (Matt Lintz) and welcoming him into a friend group that included Gage (Jackson Pace) and Rodney (Joe Ando Hirsh).
All original characters to the TV series based on the comic book by writer Robert Kirkman and artists Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard, Addy, Henry, and Rodney were among the 10 victims murdered by the Whisperers in the season 9 episode “The Calm Before.” (Mack’s Addy was partially inspired by Anna, a minor character with a crush on Carl Grimes in the comics.)
Mack’s co-star, Alanna Masterson, who played Tara until “The Calm Before,” remembered Mack as “an incredible human,” writing in a tribute, “So proud to have fought alongside her in our final episode together.”
In addition to her role on The Walking Dead, Mack made appearances on such television series as 9-1-1, Schooled, and Chicago Med. She also performed the voice match for Hailee Steinfeld’s Gwen Stacy/Spider-Gwen in 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and voiced Spider-Gwen in a Hyundai Ioniq commercial pegged to 2023 sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
“Regarding voice over work, I’ve mostly shared my bubbly, quirky side. I’m a very positive person who loves to inspire and make people feel heard, so that tends to translate well to commercials, especially those aimed at young adults and children,” Mack told VoyageLA in a 2020 interview. “I would love to get more involved in animation, so I’ve actually been branching out to that recently, doing some work on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and some other independent animated series.”
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Mack credited watching classic sitcoms I Love Lucy, Bewitched, and Gilligan’s Island for informing “a deep-rooted passion for acting and storytelling.” She moved to Southern California to study Film Production & Business at Chapman University and found that “acting was what fulfilled me the most.”
“My education in all areas of film production has lent itself well to producing, I discovered, so I’ve made four short films and hope to produce a feature at some point too,” Mack said of the shorts Positive, The Perfect One, and A Knock at the Door. In 2025, Mack received an executive producer credit on the feature Universal.
“It took several years to be cast in a TV show, and I feel so lucky to have had my first opportunity on such a well-known show,” Mack said of The Walking Dead. “Since then, things have definitely begun to pick up a bit – I’ve had small roles on a few more shows and have a feature coming out soon that I’m super excited about [2021’s Broadcast Signal Intrusion].”
Mack’s final credit will be Universal (2025), described as a “comedy/drama/sci-fi feature film in which a couple of academics enjoying a romantic break in a remote log cabin find their stay interrupted by someone who’s tracked them down, seeking their help with what could be the biggest discovery in history.” The independent feature held its premiere at the Los Angeles indie festival DancesWithFilms in June.
“It is with indelible sadness that we are announcing the passing of our dear Kelley. Such a bright, fervent light has transitioned to the beyond, where we all eventually must go,” Mack’s family wrote in an Aug. 5 Instagram post announcing her death. “Kelley passed peacefully on Saturday evening with her loving mother Kristen and steadfast aunt Karen present. Kelley has already come to many of her loved ones in the form of various butterflies 🦋 ❤️. She will be missed by so many to depths that words cannot express.”
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Image Courtesy of Big Finish Productions.
