Jess Bush
Jess Bush | |
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Born | March 26, 1992 |
Nationality | Australian |
Occupations |
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Years active | 2011 – present |
Jess Bush (born 26 March 1992) is an Australian actor, model, reality television personality, and visual artist. Her television work includes competing on the seventh season of the reality TV series Australia's Next Top Model, and playing Nurse Christine Chapel on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Personal life
Jess Bush was born on 26 March 1992,[1] and is from Keperra, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Australia.[2] In speaking with The Daily Beast in mid-2023 about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' LGBTQ+ representation—and her portrayal of a bisexual character—Bush unhesitatingly told the interviewer, "I'm queer".[3]
Visual arts work
A visual artist since childhood, Bush began selling her pieces professionally at age 19. She is also a jewellery designer, and some of her pieces appear on Strange New Worlds.[4]
Bee Totem
In 2019, Bush began developing and exhibiting her ongoing Bee Totem series. She collects dead honey bees from beekeepers, and preserves them in spheres of crystal resin and attaching fine jewellery chains. Her exhibitions collaborate with projection artists and sound designers to hang the many preserved bees at different heights to create shapes and experiences in three-dimensional space.[4]
For herself, Bee Totem is about recognizing and emphasizing the importance of the bees that, not only make the human world livable, but then "live by the thousands and die quietly by the thousands." The individual preserved bee in the sphere is amplified and magnified, showing its intelligence and beauty; it causes the observer to "pause and think about the moment that it died, because its frozen in that moment after its death, so its kind of like a memorial." The installation then amplifies "that impact of thousands dead at the same time".[4][5]
Having received several rounds of funding from the Australian Government by 2022,[5] Bush described it as "the most significant work that [she's] ever made" with a goal of doing so "probably forever". She would like to build a cathedral for thousands of preserved bees, to allow people to quietly sit and reflect in the immensity of sacrifice.[4] While acting, Bush takes a hiatus from her visual art work, though she has taken her materials when shooting.[6]
Performing arts career
Bush's first television appearance was[6] competing on the seventh season of the reality TV series Australia's Next Top Model;[7] she told the programme that she entered modeling for the challenge, competitiveness, travel, and variety.[8] In Australia, she has also performed on Home and Away and Playing for Keeps.[5]
Leaving Australian TV for the first time with 2022's Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,[5] Bush co-stars as Christine Chapel (the second actor in the role after Majel Barrett in the original Star Trek). Heavy described Bush's interpretation of the character as "very different [...] fun, irreverent, and a bit of a live wire."[9] Bush eschews her native Australian accent for the performance, a dichotomy that helps her get into character physically and mentally.[4]
Awards
Award | Year | Nominated work | Category | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Saturn Award | 2022 | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | Best Supporting Actress in a Streaming Series | Nominated | [10][11] |
References
- ^ Bush, Jess [@onejessa] (26 March 2023). "Ringing in my 31st year with my parents in Ash Fork, Arizona. […]". Ash Fork, Arizona. Archived from the original on 29 August 2023. Retrieved 29 August 2023 – via Instagram.
- ^ "Jess plans to use Top Model experience". North-West News. Brisbane. 19 October 2011. p. 30.
- ^ Ennis, Dawn (15 June 2023). "The 'Star Trek' Cast on the Radical LGBT+ Representation of 'Strange New Worlds'". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 25 June 2023. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
The out stars of 'Strange New Worlds' discuss what the show's unapologetic depiction of queerness and gender means to them and the 'Star Trek' franchise's history of allyship.
- ^ a b c d e Bush, Jess (1 June 2022). "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds interview with Jess Bush on playing Christine Chapel". Brief Take (Interview). Interviewed by Trapunski, Charles. Toronto. Archived from the original on 23 July 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022 – via YouTube.
- ^ a b c d Schulz, Madeleine (9 June 2022). "Jess Bush | The 'Strange New Worlds' of Hollywood". Flaunt. ISSN 1523-5726. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
- ^ a b Hoffman, Jordan (14 June 2022). "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Standout Jess Bush Is a Bit of a Mad Scientist". Vanity Fair. ISSN 0733-8899. Archived from the original on 12 May 2023. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
The Australian actor on putting a new spin on a legacy character and smacking Spock.
- ^ Kaplan, Rebecca (8 May 2022). "Jess Bush Binged Star Trek: The Original Series for Strange New Worlds Role". MovieWeb. Archived from the original on 2 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
Jess Bush read as much as she could about Majel Barrett-Roddenberry and Nurse Chapel.
- ^ "Jess – Bio". Australia's Next Top Model. Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
- ^ Spelling, Ian (30 April 2022). "Jess Bush is the New Nurse Chapel on 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds'". Heavy. Archived from the original on 2 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
- ^ Tinoco, Armando (12 August 2022). "Saturn Awards Nominations: 'The Batman', 'Nightmare Alley', 'Spider-Man', 'Better Call Saul' Top List". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on 18 October 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
- ^ O'Rourke, Ryan (26 October 2022). "Saturn Award Winners Headlined By 'Everything Everywhere All At Once,' 'Top Gun Maverick,' and 'Better Call Saul'". Collider. Archived from the original on 11 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
Kathryn Leigh Scott, Julie Plec, and more were also given special awards.
External links
- 1992 births
- 21st-century Australian actresses
- 21st-century Australian women artists
- Actresses from Brisbane
- Artists from Brisbane
- Australian actresses
- Australian female models
- Australian installation artists
- Australian television actresses
- Jewellery designers
- Living people
- Mixed-media artists
- Queer actresses
- Queer artists
- Queer models
- Top Model contestants
- Women installation artists