Victoria Justice ~ Seventeen April 2011
Victoria Justice (born February 19, 1993) is an American actress, singer, songwriter, and dancer. She debuted as an actress at the age of 10 and has since appeared in several films and television series including the Nickelodeon series Zoey 101 and Victorious. She has made appearances in several theatrical releases, including Unknown as well as the 2006 thriller The Garden. She has appeared in several Nickelodeon series, including True Jackson, VP, The Troop, The Penguins of Madagascar and iCarly, as well as on the Nickelodeon game show BrainSurge as a contestant. In 2010 she starred in the Nickelodeon film The Boy Who Cried Werewolf.Aside from acting, Justice is involved in her musical career. She has performed several songs for the soundtrack to the Nickelodeon musical Spectacular!, in which she starred. She has recorded a number of songs for the Victorious series. Justice has announced the release of her debut album, which is expected to be released sometime during 2012.Victoria Justice was born on February 19, 1993, in Hollywood, Florida, to Serene and Zack Justice. Her mother is Puerto Rican and her father is of English, German, and Irish descent. She first developed an interest in acting when she was 8 years old after watching a children's commercial. She and her family relocated to Hollywood, California, in 2003. In 2005, she auditioned and was accepted into the musical theatre program at Los Angeles' renowned Performing Arts Magnet school. Her family moved from Hollywood, Florida, to Los Angeles when she was 11 after Justice had stated she wanted to be a part of filming commercials as well as television series and films. Justice has done commercials for companies such as Ralph Lauren, Gap and Guess. She appeared in national commercials for Mervyn's, Peanut Butter Toast Crunch and Ovaltine.
Justice first began her acting career when she was 10 years old, when she made a guest appearance on the Gilmore Girls episode "The Hobbit, the Sofa and Digger Stiles". Justice portrayed Jill #2 in a walk-on role. After her appearance in the series, her family moved to Los Angeles, when Justice stated she wanted a career in acting. The following year, Justice guest starred on the second episode of the Disney channel series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, in which she plays a young pageant contestant named Rebecca. Later, Justice was awarded a role in the 2005 drama-thriller Mary. Justice portrayed the role of Stella, a young girl who begins seeing visions of Mary Magdalene. After informing her family of this, they take her to see a psychiatrist, who places her on medication. Later that night, when Mary comes back, Stella takes her medicine and ignores her. This leads Mary to give Stella's sister the task instead. The film debuted at 2005 Venice Film Festival, before being showed at several other Festivals, including the 2005 Toronto Film Festival, Deauville Film Festival and San Sebastián International Film Festival.During the same year, Justice was awarded a main cast role in the Nickelodeon series Zoey 101 as Lola Martinez, a new student who is also an aspiring actress. When she found out she had earned the role, she said "I was extremely happy; I was bouncing up and down and screaming. That was a really great moment."[8] The season 2 episode that introduced Justice's character debuted on September 11, 2005. Justice also had roles in two other films that year. She had a cameo appearance in the R-rated film When Do We Eat?, as well as earning the role of Rose in the Hallmark television film Silver Bells, the following of which has become a Hallmark Hall of Fame film.In 2006, while filming episodes for Zoey 101, Justice made a guest appearance on an episode of the series Everwood, in the episode "Enjoy the Ride". Justice made her theatrical film debut that year, when she was given a cameo role in the film Unknown. The film was a financial failure, and received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently has a 39% approval rate, and only has a 44% approval rate on metacritic.2006 also saw Justice in her first major theatrical role, when she was awarded the supporting role of Holly in the thriller film The Garden. The film was met with negative reviews from critics, with Tex Massacre of Bloody Disgusting giving the film a score of 3 out of 10, stating, "Overflowing with way too much exposition, and a barrage of scenes that offer little more than the actors looking pensive, The Garden felt like five movies – five long strange never-ending tales that were designed to suck the very soul from my body. Perhaps it felt that way because it took me 5 sittings to finally make it through the film!"
2007 and 2008 saw Justice focusing on the third and fourth seasons of Zoey 101, which was coming to a close. Justice released her debut single midway through 2007, while she was still filming Zoey 101. The song was a cover of the Vanessa Carlton song, "A Thousand Miles". The song failed to make an impact on any charts, had little promotion, and no music video was filmed or released. When being interviewed about in 2010 about her musical career, Justice has stated "My family could always tell, ever since I was little, that something that's always come natural to me and that I've always wanted to do. It's something that's just been in my blood. Ever since I was little, I was taking tap classes, jazz classes, hip-hop classes, acting classes. I just always wanted to cultivate that and do that more. But, the moment where I actually realized, "Woah, this is something that I can actually do for the rest of my life and maybe be successful at," was actually the pilot of Victorious when I did the performance number for the first time. I just remember standing on stage and seeing all these people looking at me and I was nervous. And then, the music started and I started dancing around and really feeling it and having an amazing time, and that's when it clicked for me that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life." May 2, 2008 saw the airing of the final episode of the series.
2009 proved to be a successful year for Justice. She announced plans to guest star on an episode of Nickelodeon's series The Naked Brothers Band. The TV special, titled Valentine Dream Date featured Justice portraying herself.
Justice made no plans of going back into the recording studio until 2009, when she starred in the Nickelodeon musical, Spectacular!. Justice's character performs three songs during the course of the film. When being interviewed about the song writing process, Justice stated "It was really fun. This is the first time that people are going to hear me sing officially. There was a YouTube video where I covered “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton, which I did just for fun with my singing coach. Somehow that got leaked online, and I guess people liked it. But this is the first time that my voice will be on any soundtrack and people are actually going to hear me sing in the studio. It’s really cool and I can’t wait for people to hear it! The songs are really catchy and you can dance around to them. When we were filming, that’s all me, Simon [Curtis], Avan [Jogia] and Andrea, would listen to! We would dance around to the songs all the time and practice the moves." She also stated "I completed the songs pretty quickly. I sang three songs that were all duets with Simon, and I finished them in 2 days. I practiced them a long time before, because I wanted to be prepared. So for the 2 weeks before that, I was rehearsing every single day, like 10 times a day. It’s a good idea because you’re more prepared. I definitely did, but I don’t think everyone does." Justice starred alongside Nolan Funk and Simon Curtis in the musical film, which aired on Nickelodeon on February 16, 2009. The film has become one of Nickelodeon's most popular movies, attracting an audience 3.7 million viewers on its premiere night.
he film received a generally positive review from several critics. Common Sense Media said in their review that "With SPECTACULAR!, Nickelodeon attempts to loosen the iron grip Disney established on tween-targeted modern-day musicals with High School Musical and its sequels. Spectacular! definitely has some similarities to HSM – including a talented cast, upbeat song-and-dance numbers, and age-appropriate content for tweens – but there are also some marked differences. Nikko is a bit of a bad boy, mouthing off to his older brother (who acts as his guardian) and flaunting a major superiority complex with the choir members. Courtney's also guilty of some errors in judgment, including allowing her passion for upstaging Ta-Da – and lead singer Royce (Simon Curtis), who defected from Spectacular! – to lead to promising Nikko money that belonged to the group. But rather than weighing the story down, these character flaws actually benefit the overall package. They allow the characters to evolve – and, in the end, that's what tweens will take away from this story. Spectacular! can't boast the same pure star power of its popular Disney rival, but it does offer equally kid-friendly entertainment with strong positive overtones. Though parents will find the story predictable and more than a little cheesy, tweens are sure to embrace it and the messages it sends." The film has a 76% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of 2011.
After the success of The Naked Brothers Band special in which Justice guest starred, producers insisted on placing her in yet another episode. The episode, titled "The Premiere", debuted on April 11, 2009. Shortly afterward, it was announced that Victoria Justice would be guest starring on a special episode of the hit television series iCarly.The episode, which aired on August 8, 2009 saw Justice portraying ring fighter Shelby Marx. After Carly jokingly states she could beat Marx in a fight, Marx goes to Carly's home and challenges her. The plan is to rig the fight, so no one really is hurt. The fight is set to air on TV as well. However, after Carly's enemy, Nevel, intervenes, the fight turns real. The special was later released onto a DVD of the same name, which features not only the episode, but also has three other iCarly episodes, including "iDate a Bad Boy", "iCarly Awards", and "iLook Alike". The DVD also includes Big Time Audition, the pilot movie of Big Time Rush.September 26 saw the release of the True Jackson, VP episode "True Crush", which featured an appearance by Justice. On its original airdate, the show received 3.6 million viewers.