Jessica Lee Rose (born April 26, 1987) is an American-born actress from New Zealand who rose to popularity after playing the role of lonelygirl15, a fictional teenage homeschooled character named Bree who appeared in many vlogs on the popular website YouTube.[1]
Biography
Personal life
Rose was born in Salisbury, Maryland in the United States to a New Zealand mother and an American father, and was raised in Mount Maunganui, Bay of Plenty in New Zealand. She attended Mount Maunganui College in 2000-2001 for part of her secondary school education. Afterward, she was homeschooled while attending an acting class at Studio 111 in Auckland. In January 2004, she moved to Auckland to study make-up at the Academy of Film and Television Work. She had previously done make-up and costume work on a New Zealand short film titled Us,[2] as well as doing extras' make-up on the set of Peter Jackson's King Kong. She played a leading role in a short film titled Dearly Beloved. She also played in the scatologically themed short film Unleash the Fury.
After Rose's parents divorced in 2004, she returned to Salisbury, in May 2005, to live with her father while saving for university. She then enrolled in the New York Film Academy (NYFA) at Universal Studios in Universal City, California.[3]
Career
Many people initially believed that Bree (shown above in a screen capture from a lonelygirl15 video) was a real internet blogger. The discovery that Bree was actually actress Jessica Lee Rose received much media coverage in September 2006.
After graduating from NYFA's one-year acting for film program in April 2006, Rose lived in Los Angeles, California. In her search for acting jobs, she found a listing for an independent film project The Children of Anchor Cove on Craigslist. She was one of about 80 actresses who auditioned for the lead part. After two callbacks, she was offered the role of Bree. Jessica signed a non-disclosure agreement and was told that the project would consist of a series of videos released to the World Wide Web over the Internet. She was initially unpaid for the project but as lonelygirl15 grew popular, she and co-star Yousef Abu-Taleb received salaries.
In October 2006, the United Nations chose Rose to participate in an ad campaign to promote the UN's antipoverty cause.[4]
She was signed by UTA and was cast for a role in the 2007 Chris Sivertson film I Know Who Killed Me, which starred Lindsay Lohan but received terrible reviews. She then played "Tina" in Perfect Sport, by first-time director Anthony O'Brien. She plays "Jen K." in the ABC Family TV series Greek.
Jessica won a 2007 Webby Award for Best Actress, for her role as Lonelygirl15.
She was "Today's Girl on Maxim" on March 24, 2008.[5]
On April 4, 2008, it was announced that she is to star in another internet based video program called Blood Cell [6]
On June 12 2008 Jessica announced in a blog that she was starring in a new web series called "Sorority Forever" from Big Fantastic, the creators of "Prom Queen."
YouTube fame
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Main article: lonelygirl15
The lonelygirl15 video blogs first portrayed her to be a real 16-year-old who had to deal with typical teenage angst but quickly morphed into a bizarre narrative that portrayed her dealings with secret occult practices within her family and included the mysterious disappearance of her parents after she refused to attend a "secret" ceremony prescribed by the leaders of the family's cult. The series was an immediate hit and became the most subscribed channel on YouTube. Many of her fans became suspicious of whether she was really genuine and not just an actress doing some sort of a promotional gimmick from Hollywood. Soon an investigation was initiated which led to lonelygirl15 to be "outed" in the Los Angeles Times, revealing her to be actress Jessica Lee Rose merely playing the role of Bree. A firestorm ensued in the news media through September 2006, during which Jessica Rose and the creators of lonelygirl15 were interviewed in magazines and television shows, and gained international attention.[7]
On August 3, 2007, lonelygirl15 Bree was killed off in the season one finale, with the cult rejecting her rare blood type. In reality, Rose's contract was not renewed because she had taken a role on Greek as "Jen K.", Rusty Cartwright's girlfriend.[8] In the ninth episode of Greek, Jen K. refers to her housing with an agoraphobic roommate "like living with lonelygirl15."
References
- ^ Gentile, Gary (2006-09-14). "Sudden Fame Amazes 'Lonelygirl15' Star", The Washington Post, Associated Press. Retrieved on 2008-03-27.
- ^ "lonelygirl15 revealed". Top of the Tube (2006-09-12). Retrieved on 2006-09-13.
- ^ Hutcheon, Stephen (2006-09-13). "Lonelygirl: a Rose by any other name", The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved on 2006-09-13.
- ^ Vranica, Suzanne (2006-10-09). "U.N. Enlists Internet Star for Antipoverty Pitch", The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on 2008-03-27.
- ^ "Jessica Rose is Today's Girl on Maxim", MaximOnline.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-29.
- ^ "NZ's Lonelygirl15 takes another crack at web stardom", Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved on 2008-04-12.
- ^ Atkinson, Kent (2006-09-13). "Lonelygirl15 revealed as 19-year-old NZ actress", The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved on 2008-03-27.
- ^ Frankel, Daniel (2007-10-04). "LonelyGirl15", Variety. Retrieved on 2008-03-27.
External links
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