Jessica Vander Leahy is an Australian actor, model, journalist, content creator and presenter.

She spent her early years growing up in Papua New Guinea’s Western Highlands before her family moved to Sydney’s Sutherland Shire.

Her international career has seen her regularly live and work in New York, London, and Los Angeles, as well as her current bases of Byron Bay and Sydney.

As a writer she’s been published in and regularly contributed to titles such as The Australian Women’s Weekly, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Body+Soul and news.com.au; and she also held the senior position as news editor at one of Australia’s largest women’s publications, whimn.com.au — news.com.au’s sister site.

As a working curve model of more than a decade she’s modelled for heritage Aussie brands like David Jones, Bonds, Myer, as well as, many more.

Much more recently her online influence has seen her collaborate with health and beauty giants such as Mecca, Swisse Beauty and The Body Shop, to name a few.

With her eyes focused on a future with more diversity, she’s recently published a picture book, ‘Loved People Love People’, which debuted #1 on Amazon’s kids chart in 2021.

Being the climate that it is, adding her lived experience as a brown woman of mixed race heritage to the Australian news and entertainment landscape—a space still desperately craving more exposure to unapologetic women of colour—Jess’ ultimate goal is to carve out a lasting media career for decades to come.

Jessica Vander Leahy - Showcast