Johanna Olson

Johanna Olson is a Canadian-American actress who was born in South Korea.She got her start on Stephen King's "The Dead Zone," produced by Lionsgate and CBS and distributed on the USA network.She was an unknown young actress still in school when she was cast for this show.

Early Life

Johanna moved from the U.S. to Canada at age 2 when her father got a job as a University Professor where her Uncle was Dean. She lived there until age 8 when the family moved back to the U.S. for a sabbatical in Minneapolis,MN. It was there she landed her first professional acting job in the musical "Annie." She got rave reviews on her performance. It was no surprise since she was on stage since age 3 and trained and competed in ballet competitions and singing competitions and won them every year. Teachers and critics said she had a strong talent and gift for the performing arts. However in the spring of 1996 she was in a tragic car accident by a young driver speeding around a ravine. Police said at the speed around the corner they should have gone off the cliff and died instantly.Her best friend had severe internal injuries and Johanna had a jaw injury. At the time never knowing that injury would affect her for the rest of her life. Dreams were haulted while trying to recover. Later decided to get into film and television and discovered a new passion and a new dream.

Career

Next came her supporting role in "Traffic tv mini-series" based on the world of trafficking and its complicated affects on all people involved.Based on the movie "Traffic" starring Michael Douglas.(imdb and Wikipedia) After working on some more movies in Vancouver, she relocated to Los Angeles to pursue more challenging roles that comes with more competition. In late 2005 there was an audition for a show with an unlisted well known hip-hop artist attached.She went out for it and realized it was a reality show.She was among thousands that were competing for a spot on the show. A nation wide search. To her surprise producers loved her and she was cast. This show became the infamous "Flavor of Love" with public Enemy's Flavor Flav on VH1. The show was a phenom and hit VH1's highest ratings of all-time! This was her first noticeable introduction to the USA.(Vh1 website-Johanna Olson aka "Smokey" and imdb. After the show ended there were talks about her own reality show however she decided to go back to mainstream acting. In 2006 she got her big break opposite Jackie Chan in Baby/Rob-b-hood.(imdb)-Info supported by imdb profile-actress Johanna Olson-Wikipedia traffic miniseries and the Dead zone, Flavor of love

Filmography

References

[http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/flavor_of_love/series_about.jhtml VH1]
[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/fashion/01flav.html?_r=2&ref=television&oref=slogin&oref=slogin NY Times]

External links

[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2342630 Johanna Olson @ imdb]