Actress/singer Jana Kramer

Jana Kramer is an actress who can also sing country and western songs.  As an actress, she's as well known for TV commercials as for a TV show.

 

You know the stealthy, leather-clad woman in the Nationwide ads who breaks into homes and sets everything right - sort of like a cat burglar in reverse?  This is she.  But Jana Kramer is also known for playing Alex Dupre, a failed actress who becomes a clothing store model, in the TV drama "One Tree Hill."  She appeared in 38 episodes of that show.

Among the other shows Ms. Kramer has appeared in are "Friday Night Lights" and "Grey's Anatomy."

Oh yes, her country music career.  Ms. Kramer released her self-titled debut in 2012, and she broke out big with her single "Why You Wanna," which reached number three on the Billboard country singles chart.   

Ms. Kramer won the Top New Female Artist prize at the 2013 American Country Music Awards.  As of this writing, she is at work on her second album.     

Model Elle Joslyn

Elle Joslyn is a British fashion model who has gotten attention for her part in an American commercial.

The comely Ms. Joslyn appears in an ad for the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas. She dances in the commercial that uses Mos Def's "Twilite Speedball" as the music. 

Yeah, we should be seeing more of her in the future . . .. :-D

TV newswoman Cindy Hsu

Cindy Hsu is a long-time fixture in New York TV news.

She joined WCBS-TV, CBS's New York home station, as a reporter in 1993; a year later she became a weekend co-anchor.  By 1996, she had been promoted twice - first to morning co-anchor, then to the co-anchor for the 12:00 report.

Her morning duties behind her as of March 2014 (allowing her to sleep in!), Ms. Hsu (pronounced like "shoe") is now the solo anchorwoman for the weekend evening newscasts - 6:00 p.m. on Saturdays, 6:30 p.m. on Sundays and 11:00 p.m. both days.

Although Cindy Hsu is very much a New Yorker these days, she was born as far away from New York as is possible in America - Honolulu.  Her broadcast work before coming to the Big Apple included stints as a reporter and anchor at WFRV-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin and for WTOV-TV in Steubenville, Ohio. She started at WTVR-TV in Richmond, Virginia as an associate producer.

Model Denise Hopkins

Denise Hopkins is a model who was known for her cool beauty in the 1970s.

She did editorials for Vogue and covers for Cosmopolitan in the mid-seventies, as well as many ads.  

Her career took her into the eighties, when she was represented by the prestigious Wilhelmina agency.   

Model Helena Gibbons

Helena Gibbons is a model from that golden age of modeling known as the 1980s. :-)

She was active in London for much of the decade, being represented by the Models1 Elite agency.

Home designer Hilary Farr

Hilary Farr is a familiar face to viewers of cable television in North America.

She co-hosts "Love It or List It," the home renovation documentary series based in Canada. Ms. Farr competes with realtor David Visentin to get families to decide whether to keep their houses after she's redone them or to put them on the market in favor of one of the houses Mr. Visentin has shown them. My mother is a big fan of this show, which airs on the Home and Garden Television (HGTV) channel in the U.S and on the W Network in Canada, and, judging from the episodes I've seen, I'd say that Hilary wins about 50 percent of the time. :-)

Hilary Farr was born in Canada but grew up in England, accounting for her posh British accent.  She lived in LA, where she renovated houses and designed television show film sets, and she got the job on "Love It or List It" by pouring into her audition the energy she felt out of frustration after her divorce.  No, she is not and never has been married to David Visentin.

She's also  designed the houses of a few celebrities in her travels, and she contributes to the American and Canadian editions of The Huffington Post.

Fun fact:  Hilary Farr, credited as Hilary Labow, actually made an appearance in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.   

TV newswoman Jessica Dean

Jessica Dean is a 5:00, 6:00 and 11:00 news anchor on KYW-TV, the CBS-affiliated station in Philadelphia. 

One of the City of Brotherly Love's most visible TV news personalities, Ms. Dean was born and raised in Arkansas and developed her broadcasting skills in the Natural State.  She worked at KATV-TV in Little Rock and KNWA-TV in Fort Smith before joining KARK-TV, the NBC affiliate in Little Rock, in 2011. 

A graduate of the University of Southern California at Los Angeles, where she interned at "Dateline NBC" and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in broadcast journalism, Ms. Dean joined KYW-TV (ironically, a former NBC affiliate) in August 2013.

Model Roberta Chirko

Roberta Chirko has had an interesting journey from suburbia to the city to the country.

Having grown up in the Chicago suburbs, she became of the world's top models, appearing on covers of Vogue, Mademoiselle, and Elle, among other publications.  She lived in New York City and Paris.

So who'd have thought she'd put roots down in rural Brown County, Indiana?  But that's where she moved after she got married.  There, she became a pre-school assistant and, later, the manager of the Brown County Arts Guild's gallery in Nashville, the county seat.

Like fellow model (and fellow Midwesterner) Wanakee Pugh, Roberta Chirko has found art and happiness in the laid-back rural Midwest. :-)         

Actress Sophia Bush

Sophia Bush is a familiar face to fans of teenager-friendly network television.

For nine seasons, she played Brooke Davis in the CW series "One Tree Hill," set in a small town in North Carolina.  The show chronicled Brooke's development from a typical teenage girl into a self-assured young woman.

After "One Tree Hill," Sophia Bush starred in "Partners," a CBS sitcom based on the professional partnership of "Will & Grace" creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, but it only lasted for thirteen episodes.  Her role as Erin Lindsay on the NBC drama "Chicago Fire," however, led to her reprising the part on the spinoff "Chicago P.D.", which premiered in early 2014.    

Model Kim Acee

I begin my new A-Z round with Kim Acee, a fashion model from the 1980s.

In addition to catalog work, she also appeared in ads for Revlon "Flex" shampoo.

She was represented by the Wilhelmina agency.