Alexz Johnson

Alexz Johnson

Alexzandra Spencer Johnson (born November 4, 1986) is a Canadian actress and singer/songwriter best known for her roles in Final Destination 3, So Weird and for playing the lead role of Jude Harrison in the hit teen drama series Instant Star where her performances have twice been nominated for a Gemini Award (Canadian equivalent of an Emmy Award).[1]

Early life

Alexz Johnson was born in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada as the sixth of what would become ten children in her family. One of her sisters is a stage actress, and her brother Brendan is a musician with whom she often collaborates. She also has a brother named Zak who owns a Green Day fan site. [2]

From the age of two, Alexz would frequently sing for her large extended family; and by the age of seven, she was receiving vocal training, participating in festivals with her local youth choir, and giving solo performances at school and community functions. She entered many talent contests and festivals, and won a National Anthem Contest at the age of 11, with her rendition of the National Anthem being heard on national television. This resulted in numerous radio and television interviews, and interest from management. That year, she was also voted Best Anthem singer of the season by the Vancouver Sun.

Locally, she was often referred to as our "West Coast Celine", and sang the National Anthem at games for the Vancouver Canucks (NHL hockey) and Vancouver Grizzlies (NBA basketball team, now based in Memphis), as well as singing at charity events and fairs around the province, and also the B.C. Summer Games. She opened the Variety Club show singing a duet with Bob McGrath, sang the first set of songs at the Molson Indy (a major car race), and entertained on New Year's Eve at Planet Hollywood at the age of 12.

Acting Career

With an outgoing personality, Alexz moved into acting, where she excelled, landing auditions for commercials and a showcase for a pilot called "Most Talented Kids". She auditioned for the Disney television series So Weird which, for the final season of the show, was looking for a lead actress who could also sing. Alexz was offered the job immediately after her audition. This role was a tough assignment, because many fans of the show had already become accustomed to a different story-line, were not happy that the show had shifted from a "darker" to a "lighter" tone, and were upset that the previous lead actress Cara DeLizia was moving on as the show approached its final season. While many long-time fans of the show continued to feel this way, the show nevertheless retained its popularity, and Alexz built up a fan base on the strength of both her acting and her singing. Unfortunately, the songs she sang on the show are not generally available, despite numerous requests from viewers.

Instant Star

For the main article see Instant Star.

In 2004, Alexz sent in an audition tape to the producers of Degrassi: The Next Generation for their upcoming show Instant Star. They were specifically looking for a Canadian teen actress/vocalist to play the lead role, Jude Harrison. The first audition tape Executive Producer Stephen Stohn received was Alexz's, and he was convinced she was exactly the one who would be perfect for the role - but the auditioning continued, returning of course to Alexz in the end.

After its first season, Instant Star was nominated for three Gemini Awards (Canadian equivalent of the American Emmy Award) in the category of Best Children's or Youth Fiction Program or Series. Nominations included: (1) Best Series; (2) Best Performance (Alexz Johnson); and (3) Best Direction (Graeme Campbell). The show won the award for Best Direction.[3]

On August 28, 2007, the show received three more Gemini Award nominations, in the category of Best Children's or Youth Program or Series - two for best direction (Pat Williams and Graeme Campbell), and one for Best Performance (Alexz Johnson, in the episode, "I Fought the Law"). [4] [5] Results for the awards will be announced on October 16, 2007.

Alexz Johnson sings all of the songs that her character Jude sings on the show. She has recorded three soundtracks for Instant Star, with two released so far: Songs from Instant Star and Songs from Instant Star Two. She co-wrote five of the songs on the first album, including 24 Hours, Let Me Fall, Criminal, Skin, and That Girl. She did not write songs on the albums for the second and third seasons, focusing her songwriting instead on her solo CD.

Because of her early start in the music business, Alexz has been giving concerts for over a decade. She is at her best in front of an audience, as shown by her performance of four of the songs from seasons one and two of Instant Star at a preview event - Backstage Pass - on The-N, just before the broadcast of the second season of the show. From the first season CD, she sang Skin and Let Me Fall (both of which she co-wrote); and from the second season, she sang Another Thin Line and My Sweet Time. While they definitely like what they are hearing on the CD's, many fans would argue that the live versions of these songs are far better - more emotion and more power.

In the live performances, Alexz is accompanied by her band from the show, Spiederman Mind Explosion, which consists of three members who do double duty as actors and real-life musicians. They are: Tyler Kyte ("Vincent Spiederman" - "Speed") on lead guitar; Christopher Gaudet ("Wally") on bass; and Ian Blackwood ("Kyle"), on drums.

Alexz Johnson says that she looks forward to the time when she can hopefully "step away from the acting and become a musician instead." Audio + Interview - Instant Star on Viva For her, acting is "a great job" that she works hard at six months of the year and that gives her the financial freedom she needs in order to be able to create her own music for the rest of the year. As reported in the Toronto Star, the show also provides her with much of what she wears. She is a “non-shopper” who wants to stay focused on the music. [6]

In a sense, the choice of Alexz to play the lead in Instant Star was ironic, because her own career has been much more gradual: she has been working her way up in the business over a number of years. However, Instant Star has given a major boost to both her acting and musical career: people who like the music are tuning in to the show, and people who like the show are buying the music.

Song Samples

Two-minute, CD-quality samples of 7 of the songs from Season 1, and 8 of the songs from Season 2, are on the web site of The-N, which broadcasts Instant Star in the USA: Audio - Instant Star on The-N Links to a complete set of songs (listed here by episode rather than song title), in a briefer version (1.5 minutes), can also be found on the site for The-N: Season 1 Songs and Season 3 Songs.

Brief versions (1.5 minutes each) of the songs for Season 3 can also be found on the web site of The-N: Song Samples for Season 3 of Instant Star One Season 3 song that showcases her voice is Darkness Round the Sun The Season 3 songs also include I Will Be The Flame, a duet with Cory Lee who plays Karma, her nemesis on Season 3 of the show.

The songs from Season 1 can also be found in one-minute samples on the web site of Viva, which is the counterpart of The-N in Germany (and which is also owned by Viacom), at the bottom of the following page (under "Trackliste"): Audio - Instant Star on Viva The track list includes all the original songs except for "24 Hours", but this is available as a video further up on the page, highlighted in red.

Other roles

It is know that Alexz was one of the final choices to play the lead roles in the horror remake of Black Christmas & the Britney Spears novel inspired movie Brave New Girl. Alexz also decided to audition for the role of Julie Christenson in the thriller Final Destination 3 . As it turned out, she showed up at the audition in an all black, punk rockish outfit, later claiming that she had also been in a bad mood. The casting directors concluded that she would be perfect for the role of Erin Ulmer, a character with a bad attitude. This was not a large part, but she played it convincingly, right to the gruesome end. Her performance attracted praise from some critics, even from one (writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer) who said: "The characters are so loathsome, you're glad to see them go. Except for two: the goth couple Ian (Kris Lemche) and Erin (Alexz Johnson). He's a cynical know-it-all, like Dennis Miller with black fingernails; she's like Parker Posey with raccoon mascara.." [7]

Alexz has also stated that her roles on both Instant Star and Final Destination 3 were great acting experiences, and she is very interested in continuing her acting career down the road.

Also, Alexz has acted in independent films produced & directed by her brother, Matt Johnson.

Solo Musical Career

Alexz first enrolled in singing lessons at age six, and took classical vocal training (including opera) for at least eight years, much of it from Joseph Shore, an acclaimed operatic baritone and music educator in the Vancouver area. She is said to have a four-octave range.

She also showed an interest in songwriting, and wrote one of the songs for So Weird. After the show ended, she continued her interest in songwriting, co-writing with her brother Brendan. She also learned to play the guitar. She worked as a demo singer on various projects, completed a demo of her own music to shop around to music labels, and opened for David Foster at his charity events.

Since her early childhood years, Alexz has been performing and once she gained exposure from So Weird, she went on the hunt to be signed. Turning down offers from Disney related labels, trying to find something that fit her more and gave her more creative freedom. Today, after many issues with labels, Alexz remains unsigned.

Debut Album

Alexz is currently writing and recording all of the songs on a solo album, for release in late October of 2007. On February 23rd, Alexz confirmed that she was no longer under the Capitol name once the Capitol and Virgin labels were merged within the EMI group.

For several months in 2006, Alexz worked on her own solo CD (apart from the show), co-writing the songs with her brother Brendan, who also plays the guitar. There are two updates on this from Stephen Stohn the Executive Producer of Instant Star - one saying that "she's written stacks of songs for her CD" (June 17), and the other saying that he had listened to some of "the rough demos" (November 8) which, in his view, were "absolutely stunningly amazing".[8]

On June 25th, Alexz Johnson appeared on the Canadian version of MTV. She confirmed all of her songs have been written and recorded. She plans on shopping for a label for the next few months and release it sometime within Winter 2007/Early 2008. She says she's in no hurry for it to be released.

Demo Recordings & Misc. Recordings

Many clips of early recordings can be found on the net. Such songs as Sunshine Reigns, Secret Heart, Stop The World, and Dream About You were originally put on her old official website as clips. Two 2003 recordings, Don't Pull Off My Wings & Teach Me How To Love, can be found on CJ Vanston's site. Both songs were produced by the team of Vanston & Johnny Elkins who Alexz previously worked with on the Fill Your Head compliation album, recording the song Transparent Lies. Three other songs, Crawl, Where's The Sky, and Running Back, were rumored to have been up on her 2nd official site for the short time it was up.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	So Weird	Annie Thelan	Lead Role
2004	Instant Star	Jude Harrison	Lead Role
	Cold Squad	Deirdre Spence / Tricia Spence	Guest
	The Collector (TV series)	Isabelle Van Sant	Guest
	The Chris Isaak Show	Jennifer	Guest
2005	Selling Innocence (TV)	Angel	Minor
	Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical	The Arc-ettes	Minor
	Falcon Beach	Beach girl	Minor
2006	Final Destination 3	Erin Ulmer	Supporting Role
2007	The Morgan Waters Show	Herself	Guest
	Devil's Diary (TV)	Dominique	Lead Role
	Cold Feet (Independent Film)	Girlfriend	Supporting Role
2008	Land of Canaan	---	---

Discography

Year	Title	Sales and certifications
			U.S.	UK	GER	FRA	CAN
2003	Fill Your Head Music: Vocabulary-Building Songs and Raps CD Compliation Album Released:2003	-	-	-	-	-	-
2005	Songs From Instant Star Soundtrack Released: April 26th 2005	-	-	-	-	-	-
2006	Songs From Instant Star Two Soundtrack Released: April 4th 2006	-	-	-	-	-	-
2007	Songs From Instant Star Three Soundtrack Released: July 3rd 2007	-	-	-	-	-	-
2007	Instant Star: Greatest Hits Soundtrack Released: Fall 2007	-	-	-	-	-	-
2008	Songs From Instant Star Four Soundtrack Released:2008	-	-	-	-	-	-

External links

• Offical Alexz Johnson MySpace
• Alexz Johnson at IMDb

[9]Fan site