Biography
Jamie grew up loving all forms of the arts, especially movies and theatre productions. Jamie started acting in a theatre group when she was in junior high school. She has been in theatre groups and theatre productions ever since and recently received her Musical Theater Certificate studying theatre arts in college while working towards her Bachelors of Fine Arts with a theatre emphasis. Jamie was mainstreamed (fully inclusive) in the Southern California and Texas public school system from Kindergarten thru High School. She took a theatre class (College for Kids) at the local college during Junior High School and performed in Godspell and Dr. Doolittle. Jamie was also involved with her High School Drama Club. After graduating she joined a fully inclusive theatre group named Dionysus and became involved with the local Fort Bend Arc Chapter. At the age of 18, Jamie became the youngest President of the Arc Fort Bend Chapter. She held this office for three years, while performing in That’s What Friends Are For…, Yada, Yada, Yada, That’s What I’m Sayin’ and Return to Love Is A Disability. When 19, she was appointed to the State of Texas Arc Board. Jamie was 1 of 17 people to represent all individuals with a handicap for the entire state of Texas and served for four years on this board. While being on the Texas Arc Board, Jamie was elected to the Executive Board as Treasurer and served for three years. While being on both of these boards, Jamie was asked to serve on the Governmental Affairs Committee for the State of Texas where she was the only person with a disability and served for two years. The Committee spoke and advocated for the disabled at the Texas State Capitol with state lawmakers to change the state’s wording to “intellectually disabled.” Jamie was continually involved with the theatre group during this time and performed in Hanu-Rama-Kwanza-Mas and HAIKU playing the dramatic lead. Jamie became a resident troupe member of Dionysus and performed in many original musicals and plays including Violet and You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, as Sally. She also had the honor of being in the touring theatre portion of the group where they performed at schools, churches and the Houston Children’s Museum for the Arts and Accessibility campaign. Jamie was lucky enough to get cast for two consecutive years in a Public Service Announcement that aired on NBC, ABC and CBS for the “Super Bowl of Caring Houston Food Drive,” a campaign for food banks. Her family moved back to Southern California and it is there where she started attending a local college with an emphasis on theatre arts. Jamie continues develop her acting from all types of mediums. Jamie has also attended classes at The Groundlings and The Ruskin School of Acting, Meisner Technique. Through the affiliation of the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles, Jamie was fortunate to get an audition, then cast for “American Horror Story: Murder House” playing Adelaide. She also appeared in the final season of “SouthLand.” Jamie returned to Season 3 of “American Horror Story: Coven” playing Nan as well as season 4, “Freakshow” opposite Neil Patrick Harris. Jamie is the ambassador for Changing the Face of Beauty. She was also the first person with Down syndrome to walk New York Fashion Week in Carrie Hammer’s show. She plans to work in this exciting industry for a very long time, while continuing to be an advocate and role model for people with disabilities in all aspects of her life.
Loading...