ABOUT JESSICA...
Jessica O’Hara-Baker is a California-born, New York and Copenhagen based actor, director, and creator. She loves bringing new works to life, bringing people together, and processes that value collaboration and growth.
Jessica has worked on new pieces at Second Stage, EST, The Lark, Drama League, Signature, Prospect Theater, Fresh Ground Pepper, World Pride, and NY International Fringe, among others.
You may have heard her voice narrating E.L. James' (Fifty Shades of Grey) steamy bestselling audiobook THE MISTER.
She co-founded the filmmaking collective Burn it Down
and produces the digital zine IN HERE | OUT THERE. (She apparently has a thing for zines and is a featured artist in Fresh Ground Pepper's inaugural zine, Your Process is Showing)
Jessica is a graduate of Tisch School of the Arts and a member of Actors Equity Association and Dansk Skuespillerforbund.
From an interview with Zack Calhoon's People You Should Know blog:
How did you get involved in theatre? When did you know that you wanted to be a director?
I've been making theatre since before I knew that's what I was doing. I'd gather all the kids together in my neighborhood, or at a family function, or quite honestly at a party at my parents' friends' house where I was meeting people for the first time, and we'd come up with sketches or weird dance routines or, as it so happened to be one of the first times I met my then soon-to-be stepdad, personalized raps, and perform them for anyone who'd be willing to watch. Actually there was one summer where we tried to sing at oncoming cars to get them to stop and give us money, which was wildly unsuccessful, so I guess we didn't even wait for someone to be a willing audience.
The first time I really understood that that was theatre was when I auditioned for the very bizarrely cliquey children's theatre where I grew up, and so my intro to organized theatre was a bit of a turn off. The first person who made me realize this was something I could actually spend my life doing was Leslie Carson, who taught both religion and drama at my Catholic high school, and the way she taught both crossed the wires in my adolescent brain in a way that illuminated sacred ritual and theatre as being part of the same human need for communal gatherings in the name of something larger than ourselves.
Jessica has worked on new pieces at Second Stage, EST, The Lark, Drama League, Signature, Prospect Theater, Fresh Ground Pepper, World Pride, and NY International Fringe, among others.
You may have heard her voice narrating E.L. James' (Fifty Shades of Grey) steamy bestselling audiobook THE MISTER.
She co-founded the filmmaking collective Burn it Down
and produces the digital zine IN HERE | OUT THERE. (She apparently has a thing for zines and is a featured artist in Fresh Ground Pepper's inaugural zine, Your Process is Showing)
Jessica is a graduate of Tisch School of the Arts and a member of Actors Equity Association and Dansk Skuespillerforbund.
From an interview with Zack Calhoon's People You Should Know blog:
How did you get involved in theatre? When did you know that you wanted to be a director?
I've been making theatre since before I knew that's what I was doing. I'd gather all the kids together in my neighborhood, or at a family function, or quite honestly at a party at my parents' friends' house where I was meeting people for the first time, and we'd come up with sketches or weird dance routines or, as it so happened to be one of the first times I met my then soon-to-be stepdad, personalized raps, and perform them for anyone who'd be willing to watch. Actually there was one summer where we tried to sing at oncoming cars to get them to stop and give us money, which was wildly unsuccessful, so I guess we didn't even wait for someone to be a willing audience.
The first time I really understood that that was theatre was when I auditioned for the very bizarrely cliquey children's theatre where I grew up, and so my intro to organized theatre was a bit of a turn off. The first person who made me realize this was something I could actually spend my life doing was Leslie Carson, who taught both religion and drama at my Catholic high school, and the way she taught both crossed the wires in my adolescent brain in a way that illuminated sacred ritual and theatre as being part of the same human need for communal gatherings in the name of something larger than ourselves.