Jessica Orcsik

Orcsik is the daughter of Australian actors Paula Duncan and John Orcsik, who met while working together as an on-screen couple in Cop Shop.^[2]

Duncan, who suffered from ovarian cysts, had been told she would never have children, but on Valentine's Day 1984, she gave birth to Orcsik after a 48-hour labour and emergency caesarean.^[3] There was much attention surrounding her birth, with magazines vying for exclusive rights to the story. At only a day old, she featured in her first magazine article entitled "A Star Is Born", complete with photos of her mother holding her in the hospital.^[4]

Orcsik undertook acting classes at her father's theatre school, The Australian Playhouse Studio (TAPS) in the 1990s, where she studied Shakespeare, voice and theatre. She then went on to train at her father's film and television school.^[4]

Orcsik is an actress and award-winning filmmaker who has worked in television, film, theatre and music videos for over 35 years. She began her professional career at the age of 4, with a part on short-lived 1988 Australian TV soap opera Richmond Hill, opposite her mother, Paula Duncan.^[5] They also appeared together in various television commercials, soap opera Home and Away, and her father's television film Academy (1996),^[6] based on a true story about their family and how her father's film & TV school TAFTA began.^[7]

She appeared as Credit Girl in Me, Myself, I in 2000. Then at the age of 19, she scored a part as a dancer on the 2005 film Son of the Mask. Impressed with her performance, the choreographers helped her get her O1 Visa to the US, upon which she moved to Los Angeles. She appeared in a pilot called The High Life by the writer of Bloodline, and had other small television roles, but found herself disheartened by knockbacks and returned to Australia where she opened a performing arts school at the age of 22.^[4]

Orcsik ultimately returned to the States, to train at Broadway Dance Center in New York, before moving to LA to run The American Arts Film & Television Academy (AAFTA) – an extension of The Australian Film & Television Academy (TAFTA), founded in 1994 by her parents.^[4][5] She is the director of her production company, J.O. International Productions and was director of Sydney-based performing company, J.O. Studios,^[8] which closed in 2013. She also runs production company Diversity Entertainment/Diversity Pictures.^[5]

Orcsik has produced and directed over 30 projects, including A Death Perspective, Enigma and 2020 feature film Unsound, the latter of which has streamed on Netflix.^[9] She also starred in the film alongside her mother.^[10] She has produced numerous events and shows including On Broadway and Don't Dis Disabilities Dance Extravaganza.^[5]

Orcsik has won numerous awards, including Best Female Director at Cannes Film Festival and Best Director at Los Angeles Film Awards for Starry Eyed. Her feature film Reverie was a semi-finalist at Scriptapoolooza and Your Script Produced.^[5]

She won a Hollywood Fringe Festival Encore Producers Award for the Australian play Dead Skin. The play was also nominated for Best International Play and Best Drama in 2022.^[5]

Orcsik married fellow actor Robbie Ryde in California in 2021 and the pair were due to have a baby in the spring of 2023.^[11]

Orcsik has been heavily involved in philanthropy and event management working with Special Olympics and LifeForce: Suicide Prevention.^[12] Alongside her mother, she is also an ambassador for the Focus on Ability International Short Film Festival, which showcases films about people living with disabilities.^[10][7]

In 2022, she opened the Carmen Duncan Scholarship, in honour of her aunt, actress Carmen Duncan, who lost her life to cancer in 2019. The scholarship provides launchpads for Australian actors in the U.S. market, while creating awareness around women in the industry and gynaecological cancer.^[13]