Jessica Stanley is an actor, writer and voice over artist from Naarm/Melbourne. She is the Chair of the Melbourne-based theatre company North of Eight, and Co-Founder of artistic collective Spinning Plates Co.
Jessica was awarded a scholarship to study at Monash University, where she gained her Bachelor of Performing Arts and was recognised as Outstanding Year Level Achiever following her work in August: Osage County. In 2015, she concurrently completed the Full-Time Program at the Howard Fine Acting Studio Australia and a Bachelor of Psychology at Swinburne University. She has trained at 16th Street, TAFTA and the Rehearsal Room, training with Australian directors Iain Sinclair and Kim Farrant, and world-class intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien. Passionate on the subject, Jess hopes to continue training to become an intimacy coordinator once this becomes more accessible in Australia.
On-screen credits include roles on The Doctor Blake Mysteries and Glitch. When Melbourne Fringe turned digital in 2021, Jess reimagined her stage show, JSMR: an ASMR & Storytelling Experience into a digital show and took out the Art Unbound Award for her efforts. In early 2021 she was awarded Best Actor for her short film, Jafar, for the Howard Fine Online Performance Project. In 2018, Jessica received critical acclaim for her solo performance in Ross & Rachel (Theatre Works). In 2016, she was nominated for Best Performance Award for her solo performance in Ménage at Melbourne Fringe Festival. Other stage credits include The Crucible (dir. Andrew Blackman), You Are The Blood (dir. Peter Blackburn), Extinction (dir. Andrew Blackman),Strata, Inc. (dir. Faran Martin), Navy Pier (dir. Phoebe Anne Taylor), and It's Alright, Sid it's Alright (dir. Robert Reid).
In 2018, Jessica was the only Australian playwright invited to attend the Valdez Theatre Conference, in Alaska, for her new play Sisters, Inferno. In 2019, she began working with Complete Works Theatre Company, touring to schools across Victoria to perform for Year 12 students in roles such as Abigail in The Crucible and Hero in Much Ado About Nothing.
A passionate writer, Jess works as a freelance copywriter under the name Speak in Jess. In 2021, Jess became an Authorised Marriage Celebrant and launched a book recommendation podcast, Whaddaya Readin?.