Jessica Sharples is an award-winning actor-writer-producer and singer whose work in film, TV and live performance explores the innate power women have when they are able to break free of societal expectations and express their truth. By exposing the dark but very real aspects of her experience as a woman, Jessica creates containers for untold or ignored stories to finally be seen. Her work inspires audiences to empathize with the Woman Experience and, in turn, treat women better in their everyday lives.
Jessica most recently wrote, produced, and starred in her second short film Hostile Exchange – a wild ride through an often-ignored dynamic where women are conditioned to prioritize the needs of others over their own and, unintentionally, give away parts of themselves in the process. Hostile Exchange empowers everyone to recognize these patterns and show, through example, how women can reclaim their power at any time – as long as they're willing to fight for it… and themselves.
Jessica’s first short film Jen, 28, an every woman story about the misunderstood “gray area” of sexual assault, was selected to screen at 35 film festivals all over the world and won 14 awards. Jessica won 3 Best Actress Awards for her performance. You can also see her in A24’s Love Lies Bleeding, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC), True Crime with Aphrodite Jones (ID), and several commercials.
While earning her BFA in Theatre from NYU Tisch, Jessica studied The Method at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. There she performed in multiple plays and musicals, including: Into the Woods, Maxim Gorky's Vassa Zheleznova (directed by Broadway director, Moritz von Stuelpnagel), and the world premiere of Love Lab (written by Lila Fein and directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch). Before graduation, Jessica also premiered her one act play at Theatre for the New City in NYC and appeared in the cult horror film Powerplegic.
After graduation, Jessica continued her studies at Stonestreet Film Studio, The PIT NY, and The Ruby L.A. She is also a trained singer, plays the piano and guitar, and can spin fire with her Dragon Staff and Poi.