About Jen



Aside from being the woman of a thousand hair colors, weaves and outfits...

Jennifer Brooks was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, living both in the outer hills of Marin County and in the free-spirited Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.  Her beginning years were spent watching her mother and father direct and act in the theaters of San Francisco, where she quietly watched or slept in the audience.  It wasn’t long before she found her own way into the spotlight. 

Jennifer spent her younger years singing and dancing in her living room to old Annie and Cats records (yes records), before her mother finally decided dance class was a good place to run off all that creative and loud energy.


She joined the San Francisco Children’s Opera at the age of 8, where she performed with seasoned (adult) opera singers at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. 

She went on to score roles in school plays such as a fairy in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and a Jitterbug in The Wizard of Oz.  Her young dreams soon came true when she scored the starring role in Annie.

 

Jennifer began to audition and win roles in regional productions around the Bay Area in middle and high school.  At 16 she began her first formal voice lessons and soon discovered a beautiful soprano range that won her roles in many professional theater companies around the Bay Area.  She studied tap with Bea Blum, who danced along side many big names in the 30’s and 40’s on Broadway and film.  She also studied Middle Eastern Belly Dance and performed and competed with Troupe Dhyanis all over California. 


  To top it all off, Jennifer also was a cheerleader, took college level dance at College of Marin, and began trying out her hand in small directing projects.  By Senior year she had already directed two full scale musical revues on her own, using the help of both professionals and students.



Broadway was the dream from the beginning, so when Jennifer graduated high school it was off to New York City!  Jennifer attended the American Musical and Dramatics Academy (AMDA) on the upper west side and discovered a ferocious belt.  Immediately after graduation she was cast in her first production of A Chorus Line as Maggie, a small role with a big note.  That big note won her the Maggie spot in 7 more productions of the Singular Sensational Show, including the European Touring company.  Jennifer was then excited to move on to play Cassie (the big dance) and Val (the big T&A) rounding her out to 9 companies of ACL.  She was privileged to work with Broadway veterans such as Baayork Lee, Troy Garza, Donna Drake, Michael Gorman and Laurie Gamache.  In between “lines,” Jennifer found the time to be a Cat (Rumpleteaser), a daughter of Penzance, a Princess (Triumph of Love), a dancing snow flake (White Christmas) and much more.


Jennifer plans to be playing dress up and make believe for the rest of her life.  She is proud to be a member of Actor’s Equity Association - which makes sure she gets paid for the dressing up and make believing.  Be sure to check out the news section for Jennifer’s current projects.