After Degrassi, Harvard

Though Judy Z. Jiao ’14 did not know it at the time, her life was completely transformed by a trip to the mall. She was approached, at the age of 13, by a talent scout who invited her to attend a commercial acting convention.

Before the chance meeting, Jiao viewed herself as an extremely shy girl and had never considered acting. Nevertheless, she seized the opportunity. At the convention, Jiao was paired with an agent and soon began taking acting lessons. Three years later, she was asked to star on a Canadian-produced television show called “Degrassi: The Next Generation.”

Jiao portrayed Leia Chang, a teenage ballet dancer and student at Degrassi Community School, for three seasons. Yet since coming to Harvard, she has decided to leave acting aside to pursue her other interests.

“Being at Harvard is such an incredible experience,” she said. “I would never give that up for anything.”

ACTING BEGINNINGS

Jiao’s parents emigrated from China to Toronto, Ontario, where her mother is an engineering professor at the University of Toronto. Acting was an unlikely path for Jiao to take.

“To be doing something in the entertainment industry is definitely non-traditional,” she said.

Yet according to Jiao, her parents did not deter her from acting and were willing to pay for her acting lessons on the condition that she stayed on top of her schoolwork.

“They were strict in the sense that school came first, but they were just as excited as I was,” Jiao said. “They drove me to all my classes and auditions and they were just incredibly supportive.”

Jiao recounts memories of her mother helping her rehearse before auditions, as Jiao practiced her lines while her mother read the rest of the script.“I was extremely lucky in that sense,” Jiao said.

Jiao took lessons at Armstrong Acting Studios in Toronto, where Miley Cyrus had also studied a few years earlier. The workshops focused on preparing her for auditions, but she was unsuccessful for the first two years.

Then came Degrassi. Jiao advanced through several callbacks and was asked to do a screen test­—the final round of the audition process where she performed her lines with makeup and costume. Going into the screen test, Jiao knew the decision was down to her and one other individual.

“My agent called me and told me she had terrible news, and it was the hardest thing she’d ever had to tell anyone,” Jiao said. “I was freaking out. And then she told me that I had booked Degrassi.”

ON THE SET

When Jiao landed the role, the producers reworked her character from Leia Bince, the character she had originally auditioned for, to Leia Chang. Jiao joined “Degrassi: The Next Generation” in its eighth season, which began filming in April 2008.

For Jiao, a day on set would involve getting up as early as 5:30 a.m. for her parents to drive her to the studio, also in Toronto. Hair and makeup preparation took about an hour, during which she would review any last-minute changes to the script.

For each scene, the actors went through blocking, rehearsals, and shooting, working on about eight scenes in a 12-hour workday. Interspersed throughout the process were hours for homework, meals, and socializing with the rest of the cast.

“It’s a very laborious process, actually,” she said.

At first, Jiao said she found it difficult to play Leia, who was meant to be dominant, gossipy, and a pathological liar. Jiao, on the other hand, came on set timid and inexperienced. Though she gained confidence in portraying Leia, Jiao said the writers made Leia’s insecure side more visible to better fit her personality.

“I was way too quiet—not insecure, but too scared to meet new people and be outgoing,” Jiao said. “Degrassi definitely changed that because I was forced to meet new people everyday—new directors, new producers, new writers.”

In her second episode on Degrassi, Leia goes to a party with her friend Mia Jones, but leaves when alcohol and sex are involved. Later, she discovers that Mia slept with a man to further her modeling career, and must decide how that will affect their friendship.

Such dilemmas are typical of the experiences portrayed in Degrassi, which has dealt with issues such as teenage pregnancy, gang violence, and sexual identity. Jiao said the show is known for discussing controversial subjects, but also offers a positive message on overcoming challenges.

“I certainly knew people in high school who had issues with drug abuse, who had issues at home, who dealt with relationship problems and who had insecurities,” Jiao said. “I think in that sense, Degrassi was really able to resonate with a far-reaching audience of people.”

MEETING DRAKE

Although Jiao received inspiration from her high school classmates, she also chose not to inform most of them about her acting role. Jiao said she did not want too many people to know about her new lifestyle, and only told a few of her closest friends, who helped her catch up on material she missed in school while filming.

Jiao was constantly meeting new people in the studio, becoming close friends with Charlotte Arnold and Annie Clark, who play Holly J. Sinclair and Fiona Coyne. Jiao said she continues to visit them every time she returns home.

Soon after she started filming, one of Degrassi’s former actors, Aubrey Drake Graham, visited the studio and met with Jiao. Graham played Jimmy Brooks on Degrassi before leaving to pursue his music career under the stage name Drake.

“He was incredibly nice—very, very sweet guy, very down-to-earth,” Jiao said.

Just as Drake had moved on from acting to music, Jiao decided she would no longer act with Degrassi when she was accepted to Harvard. Although other cast members have attended college while continuing to appear on the show, Jiao decided to focus on her college experience.

“I miss acting a lot, and it was a really big part of my life. There is definitely a creative side to me that needs to be expressed,” Jiao said.

MOVING ON

Jiao is a psychology concentrator from Lowell House, just as fellow thespian Natalie Portman ’03 was a decade earlier. Last summer, as the 11th season of Degrassi was being filmed, Jiao participated in a study abroad program in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Oxford University, Queens College led by Harvard lecturer Andrew Berry.

Jiao said she hopes to go to Oxford for business school. As a business associate for Harvard Undergraduate Television, she combines this interest with her experience in entertainment. Jiao is uncertain if she will ever return to acting, which she said is both a competitive and volatile industry.

Still, Jiao credits her experience on Degrassi with providing her with unique opportunities and helping her gain confidence in herself. Through a difficult audition process, Jiao said she learned to deal with rejection and negative feedback.

“I think that’s definitely a very applicable skill to possess for the future,” she said.

Jiao said she often thinks back to the day she first considered acting. “If I had not been shopping that day, my life would be completely different,” she said. “There are so many experiences I was able to have through Degrassi.”

“It’s weird how life works like that sometimes. These chance encounters will set you on a completely different course for the rest of your life,” she added.