Tessa Allen
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Tessa Allen (born August 7, 1996 in Manhattan Beach, California) is an American child actress who made her motion picture debut in Enough starring as Gracie, the young daughter of Jennifer Lopez's character. Before Enough, Tessa stared in many commercials, the first of which whe she was only 4 months old in a Maytag commercial. Following this Tessa appeared in many commercials including the very popular McDonalds Happy Meal "The Tigger Movie" promotion which ran for 3 weeks, the longest McDonalds promotion of its time.
| Tessa Allen | |
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| Born | August 7, 1996 Manhattan Beach, California |
| Occupation | Film, television actress |
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After she filmed Enough, Tessa was picked up almost right away by NBC to play Hannah Hansen on their Friday night family drama Providence. For the first few episodes, Tessa played a younger version of Hannah with not as many lines so the producers could give time to fill the gap between the twins who had played Hannah before, and Tessa. Soon Tessa's character grew into a quick-thinking adorable girl who had a growing role in the show. Tessa portrayed Hannah from 2001 until the show was discontinued in December 2002. She was the third Hannah Hansen and the first non-twin role. Providence co-stars Melina Kanakaredes and Seth Peterson have said that it was easy to be upstaged by Tessa with her wacky outfits, her perfect timing and her cuteness because the camera loved her.
After Providence ended, Tessa shot many commercials including the famous Jif Peanut Butter commercial called "Sleepover" which has been reported to be seen on air until late 2005, early 2006. Tessa was next seen on a TV show as a guest star on CSI: Miami's 2002-2003 season 1 finale playing the part of a little girl named Emma Kaye who was abducted by a child molester. The episode aired in May 2003. After this episode aired, message boards were flooded with praise and admiration for Tessa's acting skills and the bond the viewers felt between Horation Cane and Emma Kaye, many stating that it was the best bond they had seen Horation make.
Tessa continued to film many commercials and then in February 2004, Tessa landed a small part on General Hospital playing a young girl named Molly Farrell trapped with her young brother in the hotel fire. After this short stint, Tessa impressed the execs and producers of General Hospital so much they asked her to come back to take over the role of Luke and Laura Spencer's daughter Lesley Lu (Lulu) Spencer, a change that required that the character's age be retroactively lowered. Tessa appeared as Lulu every now and then, often with TV grandmother Lesley. Tessa left General Hospital when Julie Marie Berman took over the role in fall 2005 to play a SORASed (rapidly aged for plot purposes) Lulu.
During her time on General Hospital, Tessa filmed a short film called Walls of Jericho for the 168 Film Festival. Here she was reunited with on-screen mom Karen Geraghty who had also played Tessa's mother in her 2003 Jif commercial. Karen stated after filming Walls of Jericho that "I have worked with many kids before through commercials, short films, ect. but none compare to Tessa. I love working with her and would do so again in a heartbeat". For her role as Emily in this short film, Tessa was nominated for best supporting actress.
After Tessa's run as Lulu Spencer ended, she continued to film TV commercials including a Mass Mutual commercial which aired during both the 2006 and 2007 US Tenis Open. In 2006, Tessa was in her first theatre production as the evil stepsister Anastasia in Cinderella and in early 2007, Tessa shot another short film, this time a USC grad film entitled Open House, where she plays a younger version of the main character. In March 2007 Tessa shot a Doritos commercial which featured the music group the Black Eyed Peas. In this commercial was also Matt Champagne, who was also in Providence, for the last bit of the show as Joanie's (Hannah's mom) love interest. In October 2007, Tessa began filming another USC grad film called Sunnier Days, where she plays the lead character on a road trip with her falling-apart family.
Tessa has three sisters, Madison, Jeanne, and Adeline, all of whom have acted in the past. Jeanne and Adeline continue to act.[citation needed]
