Jenny Hale

Jenny "Nef" Hale was born and raised in a northwest suburb of Chicago in Illinois. She is the twin sister of Lisa Hale, a Chicago-based costume designer for theater and film. She took her first steps into the entertainment world when she began violin lessons in 1994 under the tutelage of Celeste Lake. During this time, Jenny was a member of the symphony, concert, and competition orchestra. In 1998, she learned how to play the cello, but abandoned the instrument, favoring the more affordable and lighter-weight violin. She continued studying and playing the violin under the instruction of Kendall Hastings. During that time, she was a member of several symphony, concert, and competition orchestras. She also played in the pit orchestra, which accompanied productions including Fiddler on the Roof and Oliver. Her most recent credits include playing violin in the pit orchestra for Dogfight (2019) and in American Idiot the Musical in Chicago (2017) and Joliet (2016). She currently plays 1st violin for the River Forest Symphony Orchestra and the Northwest Symphony Orchestra. In the summer of 2002, she began her studies at Dominican University in Illinois where she specialized in secondary education and received endorsements in mathematics and French, the latter of which she had already been studying since 1996. Not completely abandoning her music career, it was also during this time that she became a part of the Rosary Chapel music ensemble for special events. She also freelanced, playing in a music group for local weddings. It was also at university when she and her sister professionally joined forces, the likes of which continues to this day. In 2005, Jenny walked in her first fashion show, modeling a piece her sister designed, which earned her the "Up-and-Coming Designer" award. While Jenny has since modeled in over 90 fashion shows in Chicago for other designers like Calvin Tran and Borris J. Powell, she continues to work with her sister on a variety of projects. Every year since 2009, she has competed professionally at several comic and entertainment conventions, helping showcase her and her sister's movie-replicated costume designs; props; and abilities in special effects makeup, character performance, and live, onstage costume transformations. She has won many awards including Best Group 2nd Place at C2E2 (Rocky Horror Picture Show, 2020), Best Master Group 2nd Place at L.A. Comic Con (Labyrinth, 2018), Best Group at Wizard World Chicago (Beetlejuice, 2018), Best in Show at Chicago Land Comic Con (White Violin, 2017), 3rd Place in L.A. Comic Comic's Prop Championship (Book of the Dead, 2016), and Best in Show at Wizard World Chicago (Labyrinth, 2016). Her talents have also been featured on several media sites and publications including Chicago Tribune, NBC, SyFy Wire, the New York Times, MTV Geek, and Cosplay Culture Magazine. During the fall of 2011, Jenny caught the acting bug when, through her fashion industry connections, she booked her first film role playing a Daily Planet employee in Zack Snyder's blockbuster movie, Man of Steel (2013). That same year, she began training in classical ballet at the Joffery Ballet's Academy of Dance. Her dancing skills helped her land her first opera role, playing one of Papageno's nymphs in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (the Magic Flute) at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.. In the winter of 2012, she teamed up with her sister yet again, this time to work on Rogue Lumen Productions' first feature-length independent film, Dorothy Marie and the Unanswered Questions of the Zombie Apocalypse (2013), in which she played a reanimated zombie, her first feature role. Since then, she's appeared in the second season of Boss (2011), playing Jackie's quirky assistant; Neil Burger's Divergent (2014), playing an Erudite lab tech and assistant to the villainous Jeanine Matthews, played by Kate Winslet; and most recently at the Lyric Opera of Chicago playing roles in Rigoletto, Turnadot, The Barber of Seville, and Luisa Miller.