Jessica Holmes
Encyclopedia
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
and actress. She is best known for her work with the Royal Canadian Air Farce
Royal Canadian Air Farce
Air Farce Live, also credited as Air Farce, previously Royal Canadian Air Farce, and Air Farce—Final Flight! for the final season, was a Canadian comedy series starring the comedy troupe The Royal Canadian Air Farce that previously starred in an eponymous radio show on CBC radio from 1973 to 1997...
, which she joined in 2003. She is married to actor Scott Yaphe
Scott Yaphe
Scott Yaphe is a Canadian actor and comedian best known as a cast member of the YTV variety show It's Alive!. He moved over to the game show Uh Oh! after its cancellation in 1996...
.
Holmes attended Canterbury High School
Canterbury High School (Ottawa)
Canterbury High School is an Ottawa-Carleton District School Board high school in the Elmvale Acres neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.It is an arts magnet school, and located at 900 Canterbury Ave...
in Ottawa followed by Ryerson University
Ryerson University
Ryerson University is a public research university located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its urban campus is adjacent to Yonge-Dundas Square located at the busiest intersection in Downtown Toronto. The majority of its buildings are in the blocks northeast of the square in Toronto's Garden...
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
.
For one season, Holmes hosted her own show, The Holmes Show
The Holmes Show
The Holmes Show is a Canadian sketch comedy television series that premiered on CTV on September 24, 2002. The 22 episode series stars Jessica Holmes, Roman Danylo and Kurt Smeaton. Filming took place at the CTV studios in June and August 2002. Each scene was shot twice with the second scene...
. She also appeared on XPM
XPM (TV series)
XPM was a short-lived Canadian sitcom broadcast in 2004 on CBC Television. It was centred around shamed former Prime Minister Bennett Macdonald who was trying to adjust to a life where the best job he could find was at a small law firm in a shopping mall...
and History Bites
History Bites
History Bites was a television series on the History Television network that ran from 1998-2003. Created by Rick Green, History Bites explored what would be on television if the medium had been around for the last 5,000 years of human history. Typically, a significant historical event was chosen...
.
Holmes is the daughter of a feminist mother and a Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
father and was for two years a missionary
Mormon missionary
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the most active modern practitioners of missionary work, with over 52,000 full-time missionaries worldwide, as of the end of 2010...
in Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She is no longer a member of the church. In her comedy, she parodies right wing Christian fundamentalists
Fundamentalist Christianity
Christian fundamentalism, also known as Fundamentalist Christianity, or Fundamentalism, arose out of British and American Protestantism in the late 19th century and early 20th century among evangelical Christians...
through her character, Candy Anderson Henderson. She also parodies this by appearing as Sister Bessy, a nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
with a thick Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
accent who comments on politics.
On both The Holmes Show and Air Farce she has performed caricature
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
s of various celebrities, including Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, Celine Dion
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...
, Liza Minnelli
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
, Myriam Bedard
Myriam Bédard
Myriam Bédard, MSC is a Canadian biathlete , winner of two Olympic gold medals.-Olympic career:Born in Neufchâtel, Quebec, Bédard learned marksmanship as a member of the Royal Canadian Army Cadets' 2772 cadet corps, which she joined at the age of 15, and participated in her first biathlon event at...
, Belinda Stronach
Belinda Stronach
Belinda Caroline Stronach, PC is a Canadian businessperson, philanthropist and former politician. She was a Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons from 2004 to 2008. Originally elected as a Conservative, she later crossed the floor to join the Liberals...
, Geri Halliwell
Geri Halliwell
Geraldine Estelle "Geri" Halliwell is an English pop singer-songwriter, author and actress. After coming to international prominence in the late 1990s as Ginger Spice, a member of the girl group the Spice Girls, Halliwell launched her solo career in 1998 and released her album Schizophonic...
, Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
, Tim Allen
Tim Allen
Tim Allen is an American comedian, actor, voice-over artist, and entertainer, known for his role in the sitcom Home Improvement...
, Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey
James Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...
and others.
Jessica and Scott have 2 chldren. Penelope Corrin
Penelope Corrin
Penelope Anne Corrin is a Canadian actress and writer.She is seen nationally on CBC Television's Royal Canadian Air Farce comedy broadcasts as a replacement cast member while Jessica Holmes was on maternity leave during the first two months of 2007...
was her fill-in on Air Farce during Jessica's first maternity leave during the first two months of 2007. She returned to the show in March 2007. Holmes took her second leave during the first few episodes of Air Farce's last season in October 2008, as she gave birth to her second child.