Background and personal life

Jenna was born on the 27th of April, 1986 in Blackpool (England, UK), and in the same city she attended the Arnold School were she was Head Girl. Because of her joining the cast of Emmerdale, she couldn’t have a conventional university experience and she regrets it. While at school Jenna was a member of a theatre company, ‘In Yer Space’ with whom she performed at the Edinburgh Festival in the play Crystal Clear. She won an award for her performance, while the play was also received favourably.

Career

Jenna’s career began back in 2005, when while auditioning for drama schools, she joined the cast of the british soap Emmerdale as Jasmine Thomas. The soap kept her busy until March 2009, with a window in 2006 when she left the UK for a brief period to join the cast of the US politico-legal drama Boston Legal, however the show had a really short life and Jenna returned to her roles in the UK right after the cancellation. In May 2009 it was announced that Jenna would be joining BBC drama Waterloo Road, as new “hard girl”, Lindsay James. As she was 23 at the time of her casting, Jenna found the experience of playing a schoolgirl again “surreal”. In December 2010 Jenna joined the cast of the upcoming BBC4 television adaptation of Room at the Top (from the John Braine novel) playing the role of Susan Brown. In 2011 she made her big screen debut with a tiny part in Captain America: the First Avenger and then landed the part of ‘Annie Desmond’ in Julian Fellowes four part mini-series Titanic, broadcasted during April 2012 on ITV1. She’s also part of Stephen Poliakoff’s ‘Dancing on the Edge’ that will hit our (small) screen this fall.
On March 21rd, 2012 Doctor Who producer Steven Moffat confirmed at a press conference that Jenna would be the Doctor’s companion alongside Matt Smith, from series 7 (Autumn 2012/ Spring 2013) onwards.