Jess McLeod
Jess McLeod is an actor, born 1997.
Jess McLeod has been acting since childhood, in small Canadian productions like Tornado Valley and Mr. Troop Mom, and those early credits carry the name Jessica McLeod; they now work as Jess and use they/them pronouns. That long runway is normal in British Columbia, where a young actor can accumulate a decade of work before anyone outside the industry notices.
The notice came with One of Us Is Lying, where they played Janae Matthews across both series. McLeod played her guarded rather than sullen, which is the harder choice and the more interesting one, and it gave the show somebody whose silences meant something. Bernie Simon in It's a Wonderful Knife followed, a Christmas slasher that needed someone to hold an emotional centre while the film cheerfully ran on genre fuel.
Elsewhere the parts are supporting and often quietly bruised: Hannah Whelan in the Sandra Bullock drama The Unforgivable, Kathleen in Debris, True in Boundaries, Samantha in The Hollow Child, Chrissy in Haters Back Off. McLeod writes as well as acts, and the 2026 slate keeps them busy, with Alex in Normal and Tracy in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma both due.
Movies (9)
TV (3)
Where to start with Jess McLeod
One of Us Is Lying is the entry point. It is a teen mystery with a big cast, and McLeod's Janae is the one to watch for the reaction shots rather than the exposition. From there, It's a Wonderful Knife is the most fun they have been handed: a Christmas slasher with a genuine performance parked inside it.
For the dramatic register go to The Unforgivable, a small role in a heavy film, then Debris if you want the science fiction version. Boundaries and Haters Back Off are for completists, though the second is far stranger than its premise suggests. Their earliest credits, Tornado Valley and Mr. Troop Mom, are curiosities rather than recommendations, and there is no shame in skipping them.