Janel Parrish

**Occupation:** | ActressDancerSingerSongwriter

**Janel Parrish** is an actress, dancer, singer and songwriter who portrays the character of *Selena Dermody* in Season 1 of *Queen Alietta's*series *Little Twisted Liars.*

During Season 1, Janel is apart of the main cast.

## History

* Early Life
* Career
* Personal Life

Janel was born on October 30, 1988 in Oahu, Hawaii, to Mark Parrish, who is of European descent, and Joanne, who is of Chinese descent. She attended the Moanalua Elementary and Middle Schools.

**Acting**

Parrish first achieved fame in Hawaii as the winner of local talent contests. She got her start as a professional entertainer when she was cast as "Young Cosette" in the National Touring Company of Les Misérables, and later portrayed "Young Cosette" in the Broadway production as well; the role showcased her acting and singing abilities. She subsequently appeared in several community theater productions in Hawaii—most notably as "Scout" in Manoa Valley Theatre's revival of To Kill a Mockingbird in 1998. Parrish got her first off-stage acting job as a minor role in 1999's four-part miniseries Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke. Shortly after, she appeared in two episodes of Baywatch as a young girl named Hina.

In 2000 she was featured in Disney's made-for-TV live-action incarnation of the Pinocchio story entitled Geppetto. She then went on to appear as the character Vanessa in the short-lived sitcom The O'Keefes, as well as appearing in many Disney shows and made-for-TV movies on the Disney channel. Along with appearances on The Bernie Mac Show, Zoey 101 and The O.C.. Parrish performed in Bratz, as one of the main characters, Jade. It is her first role in a theatrical motion picture as well as her first starring role. She also landed a recurring role in the hit NBC series Heroes.

Parrish has a recurring role as Mona Vanderwaal in the hit ABC Family TV series Pretty Little Liars based on the book series by Sara Shepard. Mona is a formerly unpopular girl at Rosewood who longed to be accepted by Alison DiLaurentis's group despite being continuously mocked by her. After Alison's disappearance, Mona befriends Hanna Marin and they undergo an "extreme makeover" together. As a result, they both become popular students. However, Mona is secretly jealous of Hanna's friendship with the other Liars (Spencer, Aria and Emily) which leads her to do drastic things. In March 2012, Parrish was promoted to series regular for the third season. In August 2013, she won the "Choice TV Villain" award at the Teen Choice Awards.

Parrish returned to her theater stage roots in Over the Moon Productions' intimate presentation of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Spring Awakening as Anna, and understudying for Lindsay Pearce, former contestant of The Glee Project, as Wendla.

**Music**

At the age of six, Parrish entered and won a statewide singing contest. While studying acting, Parrish continued training vocal and learned to play the piano as well as dancing. At age 14, on January 3, 2003, she appeared on the 2003 remake of Star Search, performing the song "On My Own". The judges were Naomi Judd, Ben Stein, Carol Leifer, and Jack Osbourne. Stein commented that she had a "lot of talent, but not quite up to the top rank", giving her four stars, along with Osbourne who simply called her performance "good" and also gave her four stars. Leifer remarked that she had a "great Broadway voice" giving her three stars. Finally, Judd was the least generous, stating "You have a future in musicals, but you have some work to do. You've got some practicing to do" and giving her two stars. Parrish was eliminated after this performance in favor of competitor Tiffany Evans who received a perfect five stars from all four judges. Parrish began writing her own music and eventually becoming the lead singer of a three piece girl group, Impulse.

In 2007, Parrish was signed to Geffen Records to produce her first album. Her first single, "Rainy Day", one that she has written, along with its music video, was released on July 7, 2007, and was also featured on the Bratz Motion Picture Soundtrack. She also makes a brief appearance in Prima J's "Rockstar" music video, which is also on the soundtrack. She also made an appearance in NLT's "She Said, I Said" music video. She provided background vocals for the song. She made her music debut in the Bratz: The Movie credits, with her electropop song "Rainy Day".

**Other ventures**

On September 4, 2014, Parrish was announced as one of the celebrities who will compete on the 19th season of Dancing with the Stars. She was paired with professional dancer Valentin Chmerkovskiy. During week three "Movie Night", the couple became the first couple to earn a perfect score with their Jazz dance and also hold the record for earliest perfect score on the show (the record was later matched by Bethany Mota and her partner Derek Hough on the same night). Parrish and Chmerkovskiy reached the finals of the show but ended up in third place, behind Sadie Robertson and Alfonso Ribeiro who took second and first place, respectively.
Parrish is best friends with her Bratz co-stars Skyler Shaye, Nathalia Ramos, and Logan Browning as well as close friends with her Pretty Little Liars co-star Brant Daugherty. On October 16, 2014, after a year and half of dating, Parrish and long-time boyfriend Payson Lewis announced their split.

## Trivia

* Parrish was the first cast member to be cast in *Little Twisted Liars*.
* Left Pretty Little Liars, a popular drama, to become the star of *Little Twisted Liars.*
* Janel is from Hawaii.
* She's a talented singer.
* She has starred on Broadway.
* She was on Heroes.
* She was in a NLT music video.
* She co-starred with Ashley Benson, on The O.C., before *Pretty Little Liars*.
* She and her co-star, Lucy Hale, are the same height.
* She's really into confidence.
* She has 11 tattoos.
* She auditioned for Spencer Hastings (on *Pretty Little Liars*) before she was cast as Mona Vanderwaal.