We’d like to wish the lovely Jenna Ushkowitz a Happy 28th Birthday! In honor of her special day, we decided to highlight five of the many reasons we are a Jenna fan.
1) She’s Talented.
Most people know Ushkowitz through her role on musical comedy-drama television series Glee. However, Ushkowitz’s time in the spotlight began since she was just 3-years-old. The child actress appeared on a number of television shows including Sesame Street. At the impressive age of ten, Ushkowitz stepped into Broadway and had her first role in 1996 revival of The King and I. She appeared in several musicals in high school and received a B.A. in Theatre Arts, with a concentration in Performance and a minor in Musical Theater from Marymount Manhattan College. Clearly, Ushkowitz was destined for the limelight.
2) Her Character on Glee.
In 2009, Ushkowitz landed the role of Tina Cohen-Chang on Glee. Glee‘s cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” featured Ushkowitz on lead vocals and proved to be quite a success. According to the character’s official wiki page, the song “charted at number 47 on the Australian Singles Chart, 38 on the Canadian Hot 100, 15 on the Irish Singles Chart, 35 on the UK Singles Chart, and 66 on the United States’ Billboard Hot 100.”
3) She’s a Korean American Adoptee.
The large Korean adoptee community faces quite a bit of controversy. Just check out this Korean adoption photo essay, the documentary about Korean American adoptee Dan Matthews and this tragic adoption case. Despite the number of individuals who are against Korean adoption, Ushkowitz proves that an adoptee can thrive under such circumstances. Her achievements have made her one of the few notable Asian Americans in mainstream media.
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4) She’s an Audrey Cover Girl.
Ushkowitz was Audrey Magazine’s very own Fall 2011 cover girl. “I want to do what Sandra [Oh] has done, which is make herself an actress, and not an Asian American actress,” she told Audrey Magazine. “I want to be able to break those walls and make it socially wanted – not “acceptable” ’cause I think it is acceptable – to see an Asian girl on the cover of any popular magazine.” Check out the entire interview here.
5) She’s Beautiful.
Just check out these photos below.
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