Jessika Van

Jessika Van
Born Jessika Van
Website http://imdb.me/jessika

Jessika Van is a Taiwanese American actress, as well as singer-songwriter, pianist and dancer. Van is most known for playing "Becca," the ringleader of the Asians or the Asian mafia on Season 2 and Season 3 of MTV's Awkward.[1][2][3] She also plays Kim, a Hong Kong Police Officer and sister of Detective Lee in the upcoming Rush Hour TV series.[4] Van also portrays the lead soldier character "Hannah" (with her voice, motion capture performance, and digital likeness) in the game Battlefield 4.

Television & Film

Feature Films

Van recently stars as Grace Park opposite Justin Chon (who plays love interest Sid Park) in Benson Lee's film Seoul Searching (2015), which will make its premiere as an official selection of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.[5] She also played the role of the Sports Bar Waitress in the film The Gambler (2014) in a scene opposite both John Goodman and Mark Wahlberg where she remarks to Wahlberg not to pin the choice of beer on her; the film was directed by Rupert Wyatt and written by Oscar-award winning screenwriter William Monahan. Van also starred as Annie in Junya Sakino's Sake-Bomb (2013) (also written by Jeff Mizushima) which premiered at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival.[6][7] She also starred in Byron Q's film Bang Bang (2011),[8] which won a Special Jury Award for Best First Feature, Narrative, at the 2011 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.[9] She also starred as Mia Ho in Danny Roth's feature comedy Foreign Exchange (2008).

TV Shows & Voiceover Work

Van currently plays the reoccurring character "Koa Lin" on CW's The Messengers. Van also played the reoccurring character "Becca", the ringleader of the Asians, and the primary antagonist to Ming Huang (Jessica Lu) on MTV's Awkward. Van has also appeared on other TV shows such as playing a Goth character named "Sunshine" on Disney's A.N.T. Farm, playing "Stacey Tan" in the 2009 Without A Trace episode "Devotion," opposite David Huynh, and playing the kidnapped Nikki Sun (Nikki Sun '89) on an episode of Cold Case, "Triple Threat" (2008).

Van has also been cast as Kim, the Hong Kong Police Officer that is also the younger sister of Detective Lee (played by Jon Foo) in the upcoming Rush Hour TV series based on the Rush Hour series of films.[10]

She has also provided the voice of "Akira" on Uncle Grandpa on Cartoon Network. She was also a voice actor for multiple baseball characters in an episode of the Animated TV Series The Boondocks.[11]

Online Work

Van also appeared as "The Star" in Megan Lee's Music Video for Destiny, directed by Timothy Tau, as "Babe" in a comedy sketch YouTube video by The Fung Brothers about Jeremy Lin entitled "The Jeremy Lin Effect 2 (Linsanity)" also directed by Timothy Tau. She also appears as Casey in the web series It! People, Yuri in The Real Housewives of Horror, and as Carly in the web series Faulty Premise Life. She has also appeared in various videos by The Fung Brothers.

Short Films

Van also stars as the main character, Tess, in Kai-Ting Tiffany Wu's short film Paper Lotus, which has screened at the Newport Beach Film Festival,[12] the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films,[13] as well as the Taipei Film Festival.[14] Van also stars in Jason Z. Wong's film Reunion alongside Tadamori Yagi, which has screened at the Boston International Film Festival, the LA Shorts Fest, the Newport Beach Film Festival and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.[15] For her role as Hannah in that film, she won a Best Actress award at the 2013 Asians on Film Festival.[16] She also appeared as Victoria Horne/Nabura in Timothy Tau's short film bio-pic, Keye Luke. Other short films she has appeared in include Chen Huang's Tea (opposite Archie Kao and James Kyson Lee), Sue Palmer's Road to Nanking, Danny Huang's The Promise with Christopher Dinh and Leonard Wu, Lior Chefetz' The Godmother (alongside Ron Yuan), Rafael F. Garcia's The Moral Thief, Sebastian Stenhoj's To Live and Dine in L.A. (alongside David Hasselhoff), and as Marilyn Monroe impersonator "Marilyn" in Maura Milan's Koreatown.

Video Games

Van's voice, motion capture performance, and physical likeness are used for the lead character, "Hannah" or Huang 'Hannah' Shuyi in Battlefield 4. Van acts alongside the characters "Irish", played by Michael Kenneth Williams, and "Pac", played by Andrew Lawrence in the single-player campaign.

Theater & Other Work

Her theater credits include DOMA Theater Company's production of Cabaret at The Met Theater Mainstage in Los Angeles. She also was a Musical Guest Star in Franny Comes Home at the Hard Rock Cafe, Beverly Center, and also performed in various UCLA theatrical productions.

Van has also written, directed and produced a short film entitled "Bereft" in 2011. She is also a graduate of UCLA.

References

  1. ↑ Philiana Ng, The Hollywood Reporter, 'Awkward' Cast, Creator Reveal 10 Teases for Season 2, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/awkward-season-2-spoilers-340851
  2. ↑ 'Awkward' Cast Reveal 7 Teases for End of Season 2, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/awkward-season-2-spoilers-matty-jake-jenna-370169
  3. ↑ Scott Eriksson, Asians on Film, Jessika Van Interview: Reunion, Bang Bang & MTV's Awkard, http://www.asiansonfilm.com/2012/05/jessika-van-interview-reunion-bang-bang-mtvs-awkward/
  4. ↑ Nellie Andreeva, Aimee Garcia Cast In CBS’ ‘Rush Hour’, http://deadline.com/2015/03/aimee-garcia-cast-rush-hour-cbs-pilot-jessika-van-1201387878/
  5. ↑ Justin Chang, Sundance Film Festival Announces 2015 Premieres Lineup, http://variety.com/2014/film/news/sundance-film-festival-announces-2015-premieres-lineup-1201373535/
  6. ↑ Ryland Aldrich, Twitch, SXSW 2013 Exclusive: Trailer Debut for SAKE-BOMB, http://twitchfilm.com/2013/02/sxsw-2013-exclusive-trailer-debut-for-sake-bomb.html
  7. ↑ Actress and Life Obsession, SXSW Hotties to Crave in 2013, http://gornoblonde.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/sxswhottiestocravein2013/
  8. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1588353/
  9. ↑ Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, AWARD WINNERS, http://asianfilmfestla.org/2012/fest-info/award-winners/
  10. ↑ Nellie Andreeva, Aimee Garcia Cast In CBS’ ‘Rush Hour’, http://deadline.com/2015/03/aimee-garcia-cast-rush-hour-cbs-pilot-jessika-van-1201387878/
  11. ↑ PRLog, Producer/Director Timothy Tau Guest Stars on EOE to Publicize Megan Lee's New Video DESTINY, http://www.prlog.org/11665538-producerdirector-timothy-tau-guests-on-eoe-to-publicize-megan-lees-new-video-destiny.html
  12. ↑ Newport Beach Film Festival, http://newportbeach.festivalgenius.com/2013/films/paperlotus_kaitingwu_newportbeach2013
  13. ↑ Paper Lotus, Palm Springs Short Fest, http://www.psfilmfest.org/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=24579&FID=68
  14. ↑ Taipei Film Festival, Short Film Listing, http://www.taipeiff.org.tw/Content.aspx?FwebID=fa5a911e-5c80-4b1a-87e6-9642deb98bee
  15. ↑ Reunion Short Film, News, http://www.reunionshortfilm.com/category/news/
  16. ↑ Asians on Film Festival WINNERS 2013! http://www.asiansonfilm.com/2013/01/asians-on-film-festival-winners-2013/

External links

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