Born
in Pomona, CA on April 28, 1981, Jessica and
her family moved to Biloxi, Mississippi when
she was an infant. Three years later, her Air
Force father brought the family back to CA,
then to Del Rio, Texas, before finally
settling in Southern California when Jessica
was nine.
In
love with the idea of becoming an actress
from the age of five, Jessica was 12 before
she took her first acting class. Nine months
later, she was signed by an agent. A gifted
young actress, Jessica has already played a
variety of roles ranging from light comedy to
gritty drama since beginning her career. She
made her feature film debut in 1993 in
Hollywood Pictures comedy Camp Nowhere (1994). Originally hired for
two weeks, she got her break when an actress
in a principal role suddenly dropped out.
Jessica cheerfully admits it wasn't her
prodigious talent or charm that inspired the
director to tap her to take over the part. It
was her hair, which matched the original
performer's. The two week job stretched to
two months, and Jessica ended the film with
an impressive first credit.
Two
national TV commercials for Nintendo and J.C.
Penny quickly followed before Jessica was
featured in several independent films. She
branched out into TV in 1994 with recurring
role in Nickelodeon's popular comedy series "Secret World of
Alex Mack, The" (1994). She played an
insufferable young snob, devoted to making
life miserable for the the title character,
played by 'Larisa Oleynick' . That same year,
she won the role of Maya in
"Flipper" (1995) and filmed the
pilot for the series. Jessica spent 1995
shooting the first season's episodes in
Australia. An avid swimmer and PADI-certified
scuba diver, Jessica was delighted to be
doing a show which allows her to play with
dolphins.
The
success of the first season of
"Flipper" lead to the filming of
the second season, which Jessica also starred
in. Jessica's involvement in
"Flipper" lasted from 1995-1997.
Since
"Flipper" Jessica has appeared in a
number of television shows and movies. In
1996, Jessica appeared in Venus Rising (1995)
as Young Eve. In 1997, Jessica appeared on
the "Dini Petty Show", a Canadian
talk show, and talked about her role in
Flipper and her general acting career. She
began working on _P.U.N.K.S. (1998)_ ,
featuring Randy Quaid, in 1998. In early
1998, she appeared in "Brooklyn
South" (1997), as Melissa. The same
year she was in two episodes of "Beverly Hills,
90210" (1990), as Leanne and in two
episodes of _"Love Boat: The Next Wave,
The" (1997)_ . She appeared in
"Teen Magazine" in 1995 and various
European magazines in the past several years.
More importantly, she was featured in the
February, 1999, issue of "Vanity
Fair". She also had major roles in two
movies that year: Never Been Kissed (1999) and Idle Hands (1999). In 2000, she had roles
in Paranoid (2000/I) and Dark Angel (2000) (TV).
In
2002 she played Selima in The Sleeping Dictionary
(2002)
and a year later she stared as Honey Daniels
in Honey (2003).
