Jess Bush (born 26 March 1992) is an Australian actor, model, reality television personality, and

visual artist The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

. Her television work includes competing on the seventh season of the

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

series ''

Australia's Next Top Model ''Australia's Next Top Model'' is an Australian reality television series which premiered on 11 January 2005 and concluded on 22 November 2016, and was based on Tyra Banks' ''America's Next Top Model''. It was broadcast on the Australian subsc ...

'', and playing Nurse

Christine Chapel Christine Chapel is a fictional character who appears in all three seasons of the American science fiction television series '' Star Trek: The Original Series'', as well as '' Star Trek: The Animated Series'' and the films '' Star Trek: The Mot ...

on '' Star Trek: Strange New Worlds''.

Personal life

Jess Bush was born on 26 March 1992, and is from

Keperra, Queensland Keperra is a suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is located by road north-west of the Brisbane central business district. In the , Keperra had a population of 7,014 people. Geography The Ferny Grove railway line running ...

, a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, Australia. In speaking with ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. Founded in 2008, the website is owned by IAC Inc. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief ...

'' in mid-2023 about '' Star Trek: Strange New Worlds'' LGBTQ+ representation—and her portrayal of a

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

character—Bush unhesitatingly told the interviewer, "I'm

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

Visual arts career

Originally a

from childhood through her mid-20s, Bush began selling her pieces professionally at age 19. She is also a

jewellery design Jewellery design is the art or profession of designing and creating jewellery. It is one of civilization's earliest forms of adornment, decoration, dating back at least 7,000 years to the oldest-known human societies in Indus Valley Civilization ...

er, and some of her pieces appear on ''Strange New Worlds''. In April 2017, Bush's studio was in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

's "infamous Hibernian House", she had recently returned from painting two commissioned murals in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, and she had received 2017's Muswellbrook Art Prize—

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

' second biggest art prize.

''Bee Totem''

In 2019, Bush began developing and exhibiting her ongoing ''Bee Totem'' series. She collects dead

honey bee A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the ...

s from

beekeeper A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees, a profession known as beekeeping. The term beekeeper refers to a person who keeps honey bees in beehives, boxes, or other receptacles. The beekeeper does not control the creatures. The beekeeper ow ...

s, preserves them in spheres of crystal resin, and attaches fine jewellery chains. Her exhibitions collaborate with projection artists and

sound design Sound design is the art and practice of creating auditory elements of media. It involves specifying, acquiring and creating audio using production techniques and equipment or software. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including filmmaking ...

ers to hang the many preserved bees at different heights to create shapes and experiences in three-dimensional space. For herself, ''Bee Totem'' is about recognizing and emphasizing the importance of the bees that, not only make the human world livable, but then "live by the thousands and die quietly by the thousands." The individual preserved bee in the sphere is amplified and magnified, showing its intelligence and beauty; it causes the observer to "pause and think about the moment that it died, because its frozen in that moment after its death, so its kind of like a memorial." The installation then amplifies "that impact of thousands dead at the same time". Having received several rounds of funding from the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

by 2022, Bush described it as "the most significant work that he'sever made" with a goal of doing so "probably forever". She would like to build a

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

for thousands of preserved bees, to allow people to quietly sit and reflect in the immensity of sacrifice. While acting, Bush takes a hiatus from her visual art work, though she has taken her materials when shooting.

Performing arts career

Bush's first television appearance was competing on the seventh season of the reality TV series ''

''; she told the programme that she entered modeling for the challenge, competitiveness, travel, and variety. In Australia, she has also performed on ''

Home and Away ''Home and Away'' (''H&A'') is an Australian television soap opera. It was created by Alan Bateman and commenced broadcast on the Seven Network on 17 January 1988. Bateman came up with the concept of the show during a trip to Kangaroo Point, N ...

'' and ''Playing for Keeps''. In the early 2020s, she was "very close to stopping acting" before booking a role on '' Star Trek: Strange New Worlds''. The 2022 ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

'' spin-off was her first television role outside Australia. Bush co-stars as

(the second actor in the role after

Majel Barrett Majel Barrett-Roddenberry ( ; born Majel Leigh Hudec; February 23, 1932 – December 18, 2008) was an American actress. She was best known for her roles as various characters in the ''Star Trek'' franchise: Nurse Christine Chapel (in the origi ...

in the original ''Star Trek'').

Heavy Heavy may refer to: Measures * Heavy, a characterization of objects with substantial weight * Heavy, a wake turbulence category used by pilots and air traffic controllers to refer to aircraft with a maximum takeoff mass of 136,000 kgs or mo ...

described Bush's interpretation of the character as "very different ..fun, irreverent, and a bit of a live wire." Bush eschews her native

Australian accent Australian English (AuE) accents are the non-rhotic pronunciations of English used by most native-born Australians. Phonologically, Australian English is a relatively regionally homogeneous variety of the English language. Australian English i ...

for the performance, a dichotomy that helps her get into character physically and mentally.

Awards

Other professional work

Bush's work on ''Star Trek'' ignited a passion for the real-world

space industry Space industry refers to economic activities related to manufacturing components that go into outer space (Earth's orbit or beyond), delivering them to those regions, and related services. Owing to the prominence of satellite-related activiti ...

; by 2023, she was collaborating with

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

and

Redwire Redwire Corporation is an American aerospace manufacturer and space infrastructure technology company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville, Florida. The company was formed on June 1, 2020, by the private equity firm AE Industrial ...

at the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bush, Jess 1992 births 21st-century Australian actresses 21st-century Australian women artists actresses from Brisbane artists from Brisbane Australian female models Australian installation artists Australian jewellery designers Australian queer people Australian television actresses Australian women installation artists living people mixed-media artists queer actresses queer artists queer models Australia's Next Top Model contestants