Jenna Ushkowitz

Her twitter account: @IJennaUsh

Bio:
Ushkowitz was born in Seoul, South Korea; she was adopted at the age of three months and raised in East Meadow, New York. Ushkowitz was raised Catholic attended Parkway Elementary School and Holy Trinity Diocesan High School, a Catholic school known for its theatre department in Hicksville, Long Island. She graduated in 2004, having performed in the world premier high school production of Les Misérables, along with the role of Penny in Honk!, Inez in The Baker's Wife, Little Red Riding Hood in Into the Woods and Romaine Patterson in The Laramie Project. Ushkowitz graduated from Marymount Manhattan College in 2007, performing again as Little Red Riding Hood, in Into the Woods.


Ushkowitz has been in show business since the age of 3. She has been on Sesame Street and other TV shows. Her first role in a Broadway musical was in a 1996 revival of The King and I. Ushkowitz sang the American National Anthem at a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden when she was 13. Before joining the cast of Glee, she was an understudy for the roles of Anna, Martha, Thea and Ilse in the Broadway musical Spring Awakening.
In 2009, she landed the role of Tina Cohen-Chang on Fox's musical high school show Glee. Her character faked a stutter for the first nine episodes and later sang two solos, including "Tonight" from West Side Story and "True Colors." The role included a romance with Kevin McHale's character Artie then begins a relationship with Mike Chang, played by Harry Shum, Jr. Ushkowitz toured the US and Australia with her castmates from Glee. She has known Glee co-star Lea Michele since they were eight years old; they also co-starred on Broadway in Spring Awakening. Ushkowitz was initially given little information about Tina's backstory, and believed that her stutter was real. She was pleased when the truth was revealed, however, explaining: "It would have been fun to keep it because that just gives her one more quirk, but this opens up a whole new set of doors for Tina." Ushkowitz has created her own backstory for Tina, and believes that she is rebelling against her mother rather than genuinely being a goth, explaining: "I don't think her room is filled with dark posters and heavy metal stuff—I just think this is a phase she's going through. There's definitely a lot of options for all the characters to evolve and change next year. I'm totally rooting for Tina to join The Cheerios [the school's cheerleading squad] or something crazy like that."