Vanessa Bednar

Vanessa Bednar is known for her work on Jimmy Kimmel Live and Barbee Rehab. She has now been in 18 episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live. She is the Creator, Co-Writer, and C0-Producer of the award winning series Barbee Rehab. She plays Midge, Teresa, and Strawberry Shortcake on the series. She also wrote, starred and produced the series Can't Let it Go. Vanessa has been in numerous comedy and drama features as well. Vanessa is a graduate of Second City and IOWest. Vanessa was born and raised in Mt.Prospect, Illinois. She went to Maine West High school. As a child she was always an entrepreneur going door to door bothering her neighbors selling pillows, plants, homemade Barbie perfume, or other items. At 19 she opened a tanning salon with her business partner while attending community college at Oakton. Oakton is where she got the taste of the acting bug and it bit hard. She moved to California pursuing her acting career and obtained her SAG card in 1996 playing a guest star role in the Stu Segal series Silk Stalkings followed by an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She did various promotions with Hawaiian Tropic and appeared in several movies as a Hawaiian Tropic girl such as Vegas Vacation and My Favorite Martian. She then decided to go behind the scenes in production and produced hundreds of live model search events all over the world. She never left the stage, as she hosted most of the events as well as produced them. She was the Executive producer for the 25th Anniversary Hawaiian Tropic International Model search featuring Everclear. The show was syndicated nationwide. As the model search came to a sorrowful end in 2010 she moved back to Burbank to continue her passion of television and film in front of the camera. She found a love of comedy and improv and went through the programs at Second City and IoWest. Vanessa is grateful for every job she has booked since her return and her first book was published in 2014. "Left Behind" is about coming to terms with and going on after her father committed suicide when she was 16. It is important to her to try to help others "left behind" find the strength to go on and not live with a life time of guilt as she has. Thank you to my team, my friends, my family, my girls, my fellow actors. Remember that it is a marathon not a sprint. XO Luck = Preparation meets Opportunity - Oprah