Jessika Van

Jessika Van is an American actress, singer-songwriter, pianist and dancer. Van is most known for playing "Becca," the ringleader of the Asians or the Asian mafia in Season 2 and Season 3 of MTV's Awkward.[1][2][3] She also played Kim, a Hong Kong Police Officer and sister of Detective Lee in the Rush Hour television series.[4] Van's voice, digital likeness, and motion capture performance was used for the character "Hannah" in the video game Battlefield 4. She has also starred as the antagonist "Li Xue" in the 2019 12-episode Chinese series,Yolk Man (蛋黄人).

Jessika Van
Born
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma materUCLA
OccupationActress, director
Years active2006–present

Career

Van starred as Grace Park opposite Justin Chon (who plays love interest Sid Park) in Benson Lee's film Seoul Searching, which premiered 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).

Van played 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 had 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 Rush Hour television 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 kickball characters in an episode of the animated television series The Boondocks.[11]

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.

Van also starred 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.

She also co-stars as the antagonist "Li Xue" in the 2019 Chinese TV series 蛋黄人/Yolk Man in 2019.

Filmography

Films
Year Role Film Notes
2008 Mia Ho Foreign Exchange
2011 Jenn Bang Bang
2013 Annie Sake-Bomb
2014 Sports Bar Waitress The Gambler
2015 Grace Park Seoul Searching
2016 Jessika the Girl in Street Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates
2017 Additional Voices (voice) The Emoji Movie
TBA Jo Wake announced

Short film
Year Film Role Notes
2006 Road to Nanking
2007 The Furious Tiger: Fist of Rage Damsel in Distress
2008 The Promise Jess
2008 His December 20th Story Woman
2010 The Godmother Anne Dingyuan
2010 The Moral Thief Stella
2010 As Love Begins May Li
2011 To Live and Dine in L.A. Bai
2011 Koreatown Marilyn
2011 Destiny The Star
2011 Reunion Hannah
2011 Bereft Jessica Writer
Director
Producer
2012 The Jeremy Lin Effect 2: Linsanity Babe
2012 Incentivus Artemis
2012 Keye Luke Nabura / Victoria Horne
2012 Partysaurus Rex Additional Voices (voice)
2012 Carlos Jr. Jessie
2012 Tea Mei
2013 Paper Lotus Tess Chen
2013 California Dreaming Chan Bai Lu
2013 Commencement Narrator
2015 Vy Nguyen & Keith Jackson feat. jason chu: No Hero Now Rian
2016 Intrepid Film completed
2016 The Lion, the Deer, the Elephant Roselinh post-production
2017 Luna Luna

Television
Year Film Role Notes
2010 The Boondocks Wushung Player (voice) Episode: "The Red Ball"
2011 Faulty Premise Life Carly 4 episodes
2013 It! People Casey 4 episodes
2012–2013 Awkward Becca 6 episodes
2014 Uncle Grandpa Akira, Additional Voices (voices) Episode: "Big in Japan"
2014 The Real Housewives Yuri 3 episodes
2015 The Messengers Koa Lin Lead role
8 episodes
2016 Rush Hour MSS Agent Kim Lee 5 episodes
2019 Yolk Man (蛋黄人) Li Xue 5 episodes

Video games
Year Film Role Notes
2013 Battlefield 4 Huang "Hannah" Shuyi (voice)

Awards and nominations
Year Award Category Nominated work Result
2013 Los Angeles Movie Awards Best Actress
Paper Lotus
 Won
Asians On Film Festival Best Actress - Short
Reunion
 Won

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/ Archived 2012-07-10 at the Wayback Machine
  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, https://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 Archived 2013-03-01 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Actress and Life Obsession, SXSW Hotties to Crave in 2013, http://gornoblonde.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/sxswhottiestocravein2013/
  8. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1588353/
  9. Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, AWARD WINNERS, "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-01-10. Retrieved 2011-10-13.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  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 Archived 2014-01-08 at the Wayback Machine
  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/ Archived 2014-01-08 at the Wayback Machine
  16. Asians on Film Festival WINNERS 2013! "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-07-14. Retrieved 2015-07-06.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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