Lu was born in Schaumburg, Illinois on April 18, 1985. She has a younger brother, Andy. As a child, she attended Hanover Highlands Elementary School located in Hanover Park, Illinois, Robert Frost Junior High, and James B. Conant High School in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

Jessica grew up in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, Illinois, where she spent her childhood and high school days developing her love of theater and the performing arts.

She went on to attend Columbia College Chicago, where she starred as the lead role in the musical Flower Drum Song, before graduating with an honors degree in Musical Theatre Performance.

As a student at Columbia College Chicago, Jessica starred as the lead role in the musical, Flower Drum Song. She also played supporting roles in the musicals West Side Story and Ragtime (musical).

Jessica Lu currently stars as the down-to-earth Ming Huang on the critically acclaimed MTV series Awkward (TV series).

Jessica has also appeared in the TV series Law & Order: LA, CSI, and 90210.

In 2009, Jessica performed in the film short, The Kari Files, as well as the full-length feature film Fame. She portrayed Whitney in Mortal Kombat: Rebirth in 2010.

Jessica has modeled in print ads for Got Milk?, OshKosh B'Gosh, Claire's, Parisian, Land's End, Chicago Place, and Carson Pirie Scott.

Her modeling career also includes commercial work for Kaiser Permanente, Samsung, McDonalds, Ford Motors, and Orville Redenbacher's

Jessica is an advocate for Love Is Louder Than the Pressure to Be Perfect, which addresses the issues of bullying, depression and discrimination as well as the Trevor Project, an organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services for the LGBTQ community.

Lu also played the role of Tabitha on Ryan Murphy (Glee) and Ali Adler's show, The New Normal (2012) on NBC.

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