Sydney Wong / Lifetime

Alexa PenaVega Is a Mom in Peril in Lifetime’s ‘Before Your Father Finds Us’ Trailer

Originally posted on TV Insider | Last updated Jul 7, 2025 10:34 AM ET

Lifetime is rolling out a series of movies involving women overcoming unfathomable challenges through faith. Alexa PenaVega stars in Before Your Father Finds Us, playing Sophia. After testifying against her ex-husband (Tahmoh Penikett), the mother and her baby daughter Emily are forced into witness protection.

Sophia built a seemingly normal life with new friends and relationships in the years that followed. That was until she learned Mason, who is ex-military, escaped from his maximum security prison. Knowing his strength and connections, Sophia had no choice but to reveal the truth to her now teenage daughter about who her father really is – and having to leave everything behind.

Sydney Wong/Courtesy of Lifetime

Escaping to an old remote cabin in the woods together, Sophia and Emily must do everything it takes to survive Mason and his ruthless intent to make the family whole again. As seen in the teaser above, that is easier said than done as the mother-daughter face the most harrowing experience. They look to take extreme measures in order for them to truly feel free once and for all.

PenaVega has previously starred in network films. Odd Girl Out centered on cyber-bullying. In The Pregnancy Project where she starred as a high school student who fakes a pregnancy for a social experiment to explore teen pregnancy stereotypes. For Before Your Father Finds Us, premiering July 26, the Spy Kids stars also serves as one of the executive producers.

She has enjoyed a long career starting as a child in the 1990s movies like Twister where she played Helen Hunt’s younger Jo. From there, she worked on a number of TV and movie sets with most recent years being a regular in Hallmark projects. The Ruby & the Rockits actress also competed on Dancing with the Stars a decade ago where she made it to Week 9. The same season her husband Carlos went to Week 11. PenaVega has been open in the last year as she and Carlos mourned the loss of their fourth child Indy during birth. The couple expressed how much their faith have gotten through such a difficult time.

Other movies to come include Chrissy Metz (This Is Us) in Faith in the Flames: The Nichole Jolly Story on July 19, Kat Graham (The Vampire Diaries) in Terri Blackstock’s If I Run on August 2 and Paula Patton (Precious) starring in Finding Faith on August 9.