Jen Gardiner

Canadian actress, Jen Gardiner was born on March 13, 1984 in Kitchener, Canada and grew up in Wellesley, Ontario, Canada. Jen is best known for her role as Modwenna in 'Martyrs - The Chronicles of The Blood'. Growing up she always had a love for the arts but dreamed of becoming a doctor. Equal parts science nerd, artist and athlete she spent her elementary school years playing sports (soccer being her favorite), participating in musicals such as 'Oliver Twist' and 'The Wizard of Oz and learning as much as she could about the field of medicine. In high school the majority of her courses were geared towards becoming a doctor but her love for the arts and sports continued. She became the yearbook photographer and was constantly involved with choirs and the band which performed through-out Canada and the United States. She also took media studies, was involved in drama club and of course every year continued to play on a soccer team. Jen was in a Michael's craft-store with her Mom and saw an advertisement for cake-decorating classes. She started taking cake decorating classes as a hobby. Soon after her cakes were becoming so sought after it ended up turning into a career. She opened her first business at the age of 20 and from there built two successful businesses over the course of 15 years (one teaching online marketing from things she learned from her cake business and one for "done-for-you" cakes). Something still was missing though. So Jen started to pay heed to the same advice she gave her marketing clients that she coached, "What makes you come alive?" Jen was no stranger to TV as she had a monthly teaching segment on Rogers Daytime TV for her cake business for over a year and was even offered her own TV show for her cake "Smile Project". Remembering her love for the arts she started enrolling in acting classes in August 2018 and landed her first lead role in January 2019 on the upcoming TV Series 'I, Terrorist' as highly trained spy Isabella Watkins. Shortly after that, she landed two more principal roles. One on the upcoming TV show 'Martyrs: The Chronicles of the Blood' as Pict Queen Modwenna and one in the feature film 'A Double-Edged Sword' as Sergeant Laurie Gordon. Jen's background in Tae Kwon Do and her love of martial arts has helped her easily transition into action roles. She also has previous training with western horse back riding, firearms and was also certified as a Red Cross First Responder and Instructor.