Jessica Napier

Jessica Napier (born 4 April 1979) is a New Zealand-born actress based in Australia. She has appeared in a number of feature films, including Love Serenade, Blackrock, Cut, City Loop, Angst, The Illustrated Family Doctor and Ghost Rider, and is well known for her ongoing role of Becky Howard in the Australian TV drama series McLeod's Daughters.

Early life
Napier was born in Wellington, New Zealand. As a child, her father, Marshall Napier, relocated the family to Australia.[1]

Career
Jessica had her first taste for acting at age 9, when she played her father's daughter on the long-running Australian TV series Police Rescue. A year later she reappeared in another episode, when Marshall nominated Jessica to fill in for a role when the girl who was originally booked to do the job refused because the character was required to be submerged in a swamp.[citation needed]

It was not until Jessica was 15 that she decided to be an actress. On her first serious audition she won the lead role of Edwina on Echo Point. Her first feature film was in Shirley Barrett's award-winning Love Serenade (with Miranda Otto), followed by the critically acclaimed Blackrock, where her character's brother was played by Heath Ledger in his first prominent film role.

Small parts in a string of other popular Australian TV shows, including Water Rats and Murder Call, followed; she played the role of Gerry Davis in the highly acclaimed Wildside, alongside Aaron Pedersen, Rachel Blake and Tony Martin. The improvisational-style series also launched the career of Abbie Cornish.

Napier then appeared in Stingers (with Peter Phelps) and City Loop before landing the lead role of Raffy in Mushroom Pictures' film Cut. The cult Australian slasher film was her first lead in a feature film and also saw Molly Ringwald, Kylie Minogue and Stephen Curry.

She then starred in Angst and appeared in the made-for-TV film Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story.

Already a household name in Australia, Napier then played the Becky Howard on the Australian TV drama McLeod's Daughters from 2000–2003. Her father played Harry Ryan on the same series.[1]

Napier then starred in the tele-movie The Alice. Following its success it went on as a series with Jessica reprising her role in the tele-drama.

In 2009, Napier guest starred in both the popular third season of TV series Sea Patrol and the new Rescue: Special Ops.

The thriller Savages Crossing was released in 2010 and saw Jessica star in an ensemble cast of other Australian favourites including John Jarratt, Craig McLachlan, Sacha Horler and Chris Haywood.

In 2010 the Nine Network announced that they would be continuing with their successful Underbelly franchise by producing three separate stand-alone crime telemovies which would be known as The Underbelly Files. Jessica was cast as the lead actress in the second of these telemovies, titled Infiltration, opposite Sullivan Stapleton. Infiltration follows Victorian police officer Colin McClaren's investigation into the local Calabrian mafia in which he infiltrates their group and also stars Valentino del Toro, Henry Nixon, Tottie Goldsmith, Buddy Dannoun and Glenda Liscott.

Personal life
She is married to David Adler. They have a daughter Emily. Both Jessica and her father Marshall are vegetarians and support various animal rights foundations.[1] She has also supported the use of Taronga Zoo in Sydney for retired circus elephants.[2]