Jessie Graff

Jessie Graff

Jessie Graff in her Chicken Costume from a 2013 'live action chicken fight'.
Born Jessica Lauren Graff
(1984-01-12) January 12, 1984 [1]
New York City, New York,  United States [1]
Residence United States
Nationality American
Occupation Stunt woman, part-time actress, television personality

Jessica "Jessie" Lauren Graff (born January 12, 1984)[2][3][4] is a professional stunt woman and athletics-based television personality. Her nickname is "Tumbleweed".[5] She is a black belt in Taekwondo, a black sash in Kung Fu, and is trained in five other styles of martial arts. She is also a championship pole vaulter and competitive gymnast.[1] She has become well known for her athletic achievements on the obstacle course show American Ninja Warrior, including in 2016 becoming the first woman ever to complete Stage One of the Las Vegas Finals course and only the second woman to conquer the Stage 1 of the Sasuke franchise worldwide, after Chie Tanabe in SASUKE 2.

Early life

Jessie Graff was born to Ginny MacColl on January 12, 1984.[1][6]

At age 6, Graff started taking circus classes.[7] She started doing gymnastics at age 9 and did competitive gymnastics for 6 years.[7][8] She was a member of the Frederick Gymnastic Club for 6 years.[1][4] By age 12 she was catching other performers on the trapeze. She has stated about her time as a 12-year-old trapeze artist, "The rule was I wasn’t allowed to catch anyone who outweighed me by more than 20 pounds."[7]

Graff was a pole vaulter in high school, and graduated in 2002 from Urbana High School, Frederick, Maryland, as a Track Team Leader, honor roll student, and member of National Honor Society.[1][4]

She majored in aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech, and theatre at the University of Nebraska.[9] She graduated from University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) in 2007.[5]

She has earned black belts in Taekwondo and Kung Fu.[7]

Collegiate sports career

Graff is 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) tall.[9] In 2004, she set her personal best (PB) in the 5000m run at 15:56.30; she set her outdoor pole vault PB at 4.17 m (13 ft 8 in); and indoor pole vault PB at 4.20 m (13 ft 9 in).[2] Graff held the pole vault record at Georgia Tech and University of Nebraska.[9]

Stuntwoman career

Graff started doing stunt work in 1997, and has appeared in several television shows and movies, including X-Men: First Class, Make It or Break It, Another Period, Bridesmaids, Knight and Day, Bad Teacher, John Carter, and Sons of Anarchy.[8][9]

As a stuntwoman she has done tumbling on Make It or Break It, trampolined on Another Period and has done many stunts on rooftops, the sides of bridges or buildings and dramatic wipeouts. She has said she continues to learn new skills from other stunt people who specialize in different areas.[7]

She has stated that Jackie Chan became her hero after seeing the musical fight scene in Shanghai Noon.

As of 2016 her most recent high-profile stunt work has been for the CBS series Supergirl.[7]

Obstacle competitor career

Graff was a contestant on the comically-oriented obstacle course show Wipeout's tenth episode of its first season in 2008, with the commentator appellation "Stuntwoman".[1] In that appearance, she finished second in the qualifier round (successfully navigating most of it, including a traversal of Big Balls), second again on the next round, but fell in the penultimate round and thus did not make it to the Wipeout Zone.

On season 5 (2013) of American Ninja Warrior (ANW), she became the first woman to qualify to compete in a City Finals course (although she did not complete the qualifier course).

In season 6 (2014) of American Ninja Warrior she could not compete due to an injury. She had torn her ACL, TCL and meniscus. While healing Graff changed her focus and spent eight months working primarily on pull-ups and grip strength. At this point, she could only do three pull-ups in a row, though she could complete 30 pull-ups by season 8.[7]

In the season 7 (2015) of American Ninja Warrior she appeared at Stage One in Las Vegas and got past the first few obstacles, but could not quite make it up Stage One's more difficult warped wall. She resolved during the off-season to build up her leg strength so that would overcome that obstacle next time around.

In season 8 (2016) of American Ninja Warrior, in the Los Angeles qualifying round, she became the first woman in American Ninja Warrior history to make it up the new 14 1/2-foot Warped Wall and moved on to the city finals along with professional rock climber Natalie Duran. This was the first time two women made it into the Top 30. In the Los Angeles city finals, Graff did not complete the course but finished second overall based on the show's "the farthest the fastest" metric. This broke her own record for the highest finish by a woman in a city competition[10] though 2016. Kacy Catanzaro remains the only woman to complete a city finals course, although her overall placement that night was less than Graff's mark.

Of her public renown, she has said on her website:[11]

I have spent the last ten years behind the scenes working as a stunt woman. Recently I have gotten some face time which I have strived to use for breaking gender stereotypes, and becoming a positive female role model. Being feminine shouldn’t mean you can’t be athletic, strong and confident. Healthy is attractive!

At the season 8 national finals at Mt. Midoriyama, finishing fourth overall, with only eight athletes out of forty-five able to finish at all in Week 1's set of Stage 1 competitors.[12] She had 12.39 seconds to spare out of a 2:20 minute time limit and was also the first woman to ever ascend the Warped Wall on Stage 1 in Las Vegas, which has a shorter run-up than the regular one. During the run she wore a two-piece custom-made Green Lantern costume, and had drawn a Green Lantern ring with marker on her finger.[7] A stop-motion LEGO video[13] was released soon after her win, which was inspired by her performance in this race.[7] Following the runs of the second week's group of Stage 1 competitors, Graff was in 5th place overall of 90 competitors, with only 17 of them able to finish and move on (a record low for the competition, indicating the difficulty of the course). On Stage 2, which proved difficult for all competitors and surrendered only two finishers, Graff staged a credible run, struggling a bit on the Giant Ring Swing, powering her way through the Down Up Salmon Ladder, but then fell off the Wave Runner when attempting the transition between its two boards, one of several athletes to go out in that manner.

Trivia

She has a pet pig named "Sammo Hog".[6]

Competitions

Filmography

Films

Year Title Role Notes
2014 Jinn
2012 Project X
2012 John Carter
2011 Transformers: Dark of the Moon
2011 Bad Teacher
2011 X-Men: First Class
2011 Bridesmaids
2011 Tied to a Chair
2010 Due Date uncredited
2010 Knight and Day
2010 Iron Man 2 uncredited
2010 Shadows in Paradise
2009 Whirlwind Action: Martial Arts Mania Volume #1 Video
2009 G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
2009 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
2009 Dance Flick
2009 Middle Men
2008 The Dark Knight uncredited
2008 Drillbit Taylor
2007 The Invasion uncredited
2007 Live Free or Die Hard

Television

Year Title Role Notes
2015 Supergirl stunt double
2014 The Walking Dead stunt double 1 episode
2013 Sons of Anarchy stunt double 1 episode
2013 NCIS Female Marine1 episode
2013 NTSF:SD:SUV:: stunt double: June Raphael 1 episode
2013 It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia stunt double 1 episode
2010–2012 Leveragestunt double: Beth Riesgraf16 episodes
2012 Revolutionstunt double: Anna Lise Phillips1 episode
2012 Modern Family stunt player
2011–2012 Castle stunt double: Molly C. Quinn, Stana Katic
2012 Awake stunt double: Laura Allen 2 episodes
2010, 2012 Chuck stunt double: Yvonne Strahovski
2011 The Nine Lives of Chloe King stunts
2011 Wonder Woman
2011 Hawaii Five-0 stunt double 2 episodes
2009 Nip/Tuck stunt double
2009 Dexter stunt double
2009 Heroes stunts
2009 Numb3rs stunt double
2009 Make It or Break It gymnastics stunt double unknown episodes
2009 Southland stunt double unknown episodes
2009 Heroes
2006 Sleeper Cell stunt performer

Short films

Year Title
2013 First Impressions
2013 Epic Chick Fight [21][22]
2012 The Case of the Missing Garden Gnome
2010 Clemency
2008 In Twilight's Shadow

Honors

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Jessie Graff". Martial Arts and Action Entertainment.
  2. 1 2 Jessie Graff profile at IAAF
  3. ↑ Jessica Graff. Ramblin Wreck. Retrieved on 2013-12-10.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "2002 Washington Post All-Met". Washington Post. 2002.
  5. 1 2 Cory Matteson (23 January 2013). "Former UNL pole vaulter lands in Hollywood as a stuntwoman". Lincoln Journal-Star.
  6. 1 2 "National Finals Week 1". American Ninja Warrior. 29 August 2016. NBC.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Carly Mallenbaum (2 September 2016). "How 'Supergirl' stuntwoman Jessie Graff just made 'Ninja Warrior' history". USA Today. Retrieved 2016-09-01.
  8. 1 2 K.S. Anthony (8 June 2016). "Stuntwoman Crushes 'American Ninja Warrior' Obstacle Course Dressed As Wonder Woman". A Plus.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Jessie Graff - IMDb". M.imdb.com. Retrieved 2016-07-13.
  10. ↑ Barnes, Katie. "Jessie Graff has historic night in first city finals episode of 'American Ninja Warrior'". Espn.go.com. Retrieved 2016-07-13.
  11. ↑ http://www.jessiegraff.com/about/
  12. 1 2 3 Des Bieler (30 August 2016). "Stunt woman Jessie Graff makes 'American Ninja' history". Washington Post.
  13. ↑ LEGO (2016-08-29), Jessie Graff Takes on Vegas Finals – LEGO NINJAGO - American Ninja Warrior, retrieved 2016-09-01
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Huskers. "Jessie Graff". Nebraska Huskers.
  15. 1 2 Tim Hayne (14 July 2015). "Watch Stuntwoman Jessie Graff Crush the 'American Ninja Warrior' Qualifier". Movie Fone.
  16. ↑ Melissa Siege (16 July 2014). "'American Ninja Warrior' Finalist Kacy Catanzaro Amazing! Watch Video of 5-foot Tall Gymnast Become First Woman to Finish Finals Course". Hollywood Take.
  17. ↑ Hannah Schoebaum (29 August 2015). "Exclusive interview with Jessie Graff: stunt woman, "American Ninja Warrior" competitor, and role model for women everywhere". Los Angeles Times.
  18. ↑ Alex Garofalo (12 January 2016). "Everything You Need To Know About 'Team Ninja Warrior', 'The Future Of American Ninja Warrior'". International Business Times.
  19. ↑ George Back (12 July 2016). "Jessie Graff's Amazing Encore Performance on 'American Ninja Warrior'". Yahoo.
  20. ↑ Nick Schwartz (12 July 2016). "Watch 'Wonder Woman' Jessie Graff fly through the Ninja Warrior finals course". Fox Sports.
  21. ↑ "Who Is Stuntwoman Jessie Graff on 'American Ninja Warrior'?". 2paragraphs. 13 July 2015.
  22. ↑ Jessie Graff (28 July 2013). "Epic Chick Fight (Live Action Chicken Fight)".

External links

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