Alexzandra Spencer Johnson (born November 4, 1986) is a Canadian actress and singer/songwriter best known for her performances in Final Destination 3, So Weird and Instant Star.
Alexz Johnson: Biography
Alexz Johnson was born on November 4, 1986 in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. She was born 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.
From the age of three, 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.
Alexz Johnson: 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, a well-known opera baritone and music educator in the Vancouver area. She is said to have a four-octave range.
With an outgoing personality, she also moved into acting, where she excelled, landing auditions for commercials and a showcase for a pilot called "Most Talented Kids". At the age of 13, 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.
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.
Alexz Johnson - 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 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.
Alexz Johnson sings all of the songs that her character Jude sings on the show. She has recorded three soundtracks for Instant Star: 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 music is her "number one passion" and that she looks forward to the time when she can hopefully "step away from the acting industry and just focus on being a musician." 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.
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.
Alexz Johnson - Other roles
Alexz 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.."
Alexz was also highly considered for the lead role of Melissa Kitt in Black Christmas (which is produced by the same people as the Final Destination series), Alexz auditioned for the part and she almost got it but she lost the part at the last moment to actress Michelle Trachtenberg.
Johnson has also stated that working on both Instant Star as well as playing a part in Final Destination 3 was great acting experiences and she is very interested to continue her acting career along the road.
Alexz also had a role on the series So Weird as Annie Thelen.
Alexz Johnson - 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" (Nov. 8) which, in his view, were "absolutely stunningly amazing". |
