Jody Jaress

Acting

1943-04-18 · Ottawa, Illinois, USA

A veteran actress, Jody has become known for her complex character roles. Having played everything from the darkest depths of insanity, to a grounded psychiatrist, a creepy nanny, a tormented nurturing mother, to a ditsy wife. Jody began her entertainment career more than 40 years ago in Michigan. Her ancestors arrived in New York from Germany and Wales in the 1800's and migrated to Southern Illinois where they became teachers, nurses, lawyers, farmers, pastors, lawmen, with a couple of rogues among them. Jody was born in Ottawa, Illinois just prior to her dad joining the Navy Seabees in WWII. Once the war ended the family moved to Ferndale, Michigan just outside of Detroit for many years and then moved out to horse country in Rochester, Michigan. Jody divided her time between competing in Western horse shows, singing, and beginning studies in theatre acting, stage makeup, lighting, sound, set design and directing at the Will-O-Way Apprentice Theatre and Repertory Company in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. After graduating from RHS (Rochester High School) at age seventeen, winning the Miss Rochester Pageant, the Miss Romeo Peach Queen title, and then placing in the Miss Michigan Pageant, Jody went to NYC to make "the rounds" and meet up with Lee Strasberg who welcomed her into his home for lunch and to meet his family. He requested that she come back the following year when she would be old enough to join the Actor's Studio. She moved to California instead after meeting the iconic horror film director, William Castle at a premier back in Detroit. Now in California, her very first film with dialog was The Bigot aka The Hunting Season and recently remastered and distributed by Troma Pictures as Deadly Daphne's Revenge (1987).