ᴊᴀᴅᴇ ɪs ᴛʜᴇ ɢɪʀʟ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴏᴜʀ

As the only child of an architect father and a painter mother who first met while attending art school in Los Angeles, Jade Farwell was seemingly destined to live a life of creative expression. Early in her childhood, this mostly manifested itself in piano lessons and what was probably a much larger affinity for coloring and crafts than that of other kids. She also had an extremely vivid imagination and a tendency to show it off and ham it up for home movies. Many of her family members would declare that she should become an actress, but, whether innocent statements or not, her parents routinely dismissed them. They weren't quite sure if they wanted to introduce their child to a hectic life of potential stardom at a young age, if ever at all.

Though not directly involved in the film and television industries themselves, both of Jade's parents had the opportunity to work with some clients who were, typically in a behind the scenes capacity. A few of them became regulars, and some even family friends eventually, and they subsequently met Jade, who was far from shy around new people and always had a new zany story to tell and act out. They were quick to suggest that she take up acting or ask her parents if they'd ever considered getting her an agent. Of course, the answer was always no, but eventually, after much thought and consideration, they relented. Their one condition, though, was that Jade had to actually be interested in pursuing acting, to which she responded with a resounding yes.

Even though Jade expressed interest in acting, her parents initially just placed her in introductory classes with other children as an extracurricular activity. Since she was only 5 years old at the time, they wanted her to test the waters before jumping into anything. For all they knew, the whole thing could just be a passing phase, despite her enthusiasm. By the time she was 7, her parents felt confident enough that acting was truly something she wanted to pursue further, so they found her an agent and she began working in commercials here and there. She also auditioned for bigger projects from time to time, but she took things slow, partially at her parents' request and partially because she enjoyed going to a traditional school, hanging out with her friends, and doing normal things normal kids do. At 10 years old, Jade landed her first big screen role as Jessica in Sleepless in Seattle. Working on a movie with the likes of Nora Ephron, Tom Hanks, and Meg Ryan was a bit lost on her at the time, but she still had an amazing time. Having enjoyed the experience of filming a movie, she continued auditioning for film roles and became a rather established child actress. By choice, she didn't work nearly as much as some of her young Hollywood peers, but it was just enough for her to truly recognize that she loved being in front of the camera.

Jade worked fairly steadily throughout her adolescence, but she never took on so much that her education suffered or that she didn't have a social life. Attending school in a traditional academic setting meant that she had to witness all her friends stress out about college applications when the time came. She took part as well, having envisioned herself as the type to have the quintessential college experience of moving out, living in a dorm, being on your own for the first time and all that. Considering that her career was doing pretty well during her time in high school, most anticipated that she would continue on without a hitch, whether it meant that she would attend college in addition to acting or not. However, Jade felt that she was in a good place to take a break, if only for a little while. She'd been acting for nearly ten years by the time she graduated high school, and although she loved her job, she felt that it was as good a time as ever to experience something new. In 2000, she started her freshman year at New York University where she, following in the footsteps of her creatively minded parents, declared an Art History major and a Studio Art minor. She reveled in living the life of the average college student for a while, but she knew that eventually, whether immediately after graduation or not, she would try her hand at acting again.

In 2004, graduation happened, and jumping back into the industry immediately after happened. What didn't come immediately after, however, was success. For a while, Jade was actually okay with that. As long as it meant that she was acting in some capacity, she didn't really mind mostly booking little indies and critical flops. But doing commissioning paintings and showing in galleries in between jobs could only get her so far financially. While she could've immersed herself in the worlds of art and art history for a career change, she felt as though she'd have better luck with acting sooner rather than later. If she wanted to make it bigger in the biz, she had to get more aggressive when fighting for roles. In addition, her agent began pointing her in the direction of more and more TV work, believing that she might be able to find something that suited her there. Soon enough, she landed what became her most high profile post-grad project—a recurring role on True Blood. Then came Party Down, which, while short-lived, ended up achieving something of cult status. If people didn't recognize her as Icebox, Kat Harvey, a young Demi Moore, or even Jason Stackhouse's V-addicted girlfriend, they very well could know Casey Klein instead.

Even with more projects under her belt, Jade still suffers from the same cycle of mostly booking indies on the film side. But having had more time to reflect on her career, that fact doesn't bother her as much as she thought it would. Despite the small nature of much of her work, she managed to find her footing and mild success in the comedy world, is at least proud of most what she's done, and isn't a total disaster like she could've been having grown up in the industry. In fact, she sort of felt like her big break had already come when she was younger. That is, until she somehow managed to win the title role in Marvel and Netflix's A.K.A. Jessica Jones. There's no denying the huge success of the MCU, and ever since signing her deal, Jade has been insanely aware of what all of it could mean for her career. It could blow up all over again once the show's all said and done. Or it could throw her back into obscurity and a life of curating art and freelance painting forever. Either way, she's just going with it.