Jessica Mendes(I)
- Actress
Jessica Mendes was born in Turlock, California to Portuguese (Azorean)
parents, Manuel Mendes and Filomena Rocha-Mendes, which moved to the
U.S. when they were 8 months pregnant with Jessica. Her parents grew up
singing and acting in community events and then became a singing duo
together, which is where she gained her love for music and art. Jessica
was raised in a strong Portuguese-American community that involved a
lot of acting, dancing, and singing theatrical performances. She played
the lead in several roles since she was 9 years old, singing on stage
and learned her acting skills from constantly watching musicals such as
"My Fair Lady" & "Sound of Music." She went to San Jose High Academy
where she began cheer leading her freshman year, but realized it was
not a fit for her as she didn't like the cheer leading personalities
and it wasn't actual dancing, so she quit and joined her hip-hop dance
team and continued that for 2-3 years. She also got into volleyball,
which she loved but it wasn't entertaining enough for her so she wasn't
as passionate about it. In high school, everyone knew her as the kooky
girl that loved to act and be a goof and was even nick named
"Hollywood" by the faculty. During her senior year of high school in
2004, she joined the acting club just so she could audition for the
lead role (Anna) in "The King & I" which she won with her audition song
"The Hills Are Alive" by Julie Andrews from "The Sound of Music." After
high school, she stopped singing, acting, and dancing altogether for a
few years to focus on school and get a full time job. In 2009, she got
back into the grind of entertaining and formed a Portuguese pop group
with her friends to compete in an International Singing Competition
called "Lusavox" in Portugal. In 2010, she started taking modeling
photos to pursue her acting career and was part of a Broadway show in
San Francisco called "Forever Broadway" which was a montage of 100
Broadway songs where she got to dance and sing various songs and sang a
solo rendition of "Mais Que Nada". In late 2010, she was a dancer for a
music video for local Sacramento artist, J. Gib in his "I Like Girls"
song and played a role in a short film, "I Like Dreams Better" directed
by Lionel Desai.