Conversations with Olivia Jellen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Olivia Jellen.

Hi Olivia, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am 13 years old and in 8th grade. I live in Orange County, CA by the beach with my parents and my older sister Sofia. I have 2 Pomeranian dogs, their names are King & Prince & 1 chinchilla named Chinchi.  I wanted to become an actress since I was able to walk and talk. My mom tells me of how I would choreograph a dance routine and perform it to my family every night before going to sleep starting when I was two years old. I love watching my baby videos singing and dancing. I have a lot of hobbies. I love the beach and being outdoors. I enjoy swimming, surfing, wakeboarding, skiing, snowboarding and hiking. I love playing volleyball and I am in a competitive traveling team. I also love dancing hip hop, contemporary and jazz. I play lacrosse on a competitive team, and I was super happy and honored to receive the Best Young Actress Award for my role as Young Angelyne. I always make sure I have time to hang out with my friends, go to the mall, the movies or just spend time together.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I started acting when I was five years old and I had so many auditions and I memorized so many scripts before I booked my first job. It is a lot of hard work, focus, dedication and time-consuming but if you truly love it then it’s all worth it. The feeling when you book a job makes it all worthwhile. I would tell young actors that are starting their acting journey to have other interests and hobbies. I play volleyball on a traveling team, I danced in a dance company and always made time to hang out with my friends and just be a normal kid. If you have a good balance then you won’t feel like you are sacrificing your childhood to be an actor and you won’t feel like you are missing out on anything. I want to encourage others to Keep believing in themselves and to always give it their best effort. But most importantly I want to teach others to always stay true to yourself and do what makes YOU happy!!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I play young Angelyne in the limited series Angelyne on Peacock. Angelyne is a very well-known figure in Los Angeles. Her nickname is “The Billboard Queen”… For my character, I had to completely transform my appearance and the language I spoke. I had to wear a red hair wig so I had a wig fitting before we started filming. I also went to an optometrist to get fitted for blue contact lenses. The makeup artists had to add a lot of freckles on my face and arms…

It was a very long process to transform into young Angelyne but I had a lot of fun hanging out with the cool hair and makeup artists while they were applying everything. I can’t wait for you to watch the show and see how different I look. I also had to speak in Hebrew and although I understand and speak the language, this was the first time I had to speak in Hebrew on film.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
A lot of things make me happy like spending quality time with my family and friends. I am so blessed to have a very supportive and loving family and my friends are truly amazing. On set, playing young Angelyne made me so happy because I was surrounded by a great cast and crew. I would come to set in the morning as Olivia and completely transform into young Angelyne. So I spent a lot of time with the hair & makeup team, the wardrobe team, the director, producer and other cast members. They were all super nice to me. Also, the locations we filmed were so iconic and I am so thankful I had the opportunity to film there.

My favorite location was running through the iconic Hollywood Reporter offices and knocking everything down and also filming on the Queen Mary. When not filming my happy place is painting, playing my ukulele and being around animals. I love all animals and hope that one day I can own a farm. I used to have 2 ducks that I raised since they were born and they would follow me everywhere.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @OliviaJellen

Image Credits
Deirdre Fahey photography-signed a release