Jassa

Jassa (born 12th September 1990) is an actor, singer-songwriter and presenter. He currently presents Art Attack on Disney Junior and is writing his first album, with producer Richard Darbyshire, while he seeks out new opportunities on screen and stage.
Jassa Ahluwalia’s desire to perform revealed itself when he was three years old while attending his father’s cousin’s wedding in India. Intoxicated by the bhangra rhythm and the adoring crowd of guests that had formed around him he danced and danced and couldn’t be stopped. He eventually rested when his mother, fearing Jassa was going to pass out from heat exhaustion, persuaded the dhol player to stop playing.
From then on Jassa’s confidence grew and with the love and support of his parents he immersed himself in school performances. At home Jassa was surrounded by his parents’ eclectic music tastes, varying from classical to jazz to hard rock and pop, and was captivated by anything that included big all singing all dancing set pieces. Most notably Jassa used to repeatedly watch the Jim Carey film The Mask, making the phrase “dancing like The Mask” commonplace in the Ahluwalia household.
Owing to his grandfather being an accomplished primary and secondary school maths teacher, Jassa studied hard at home as well as at school and so enjoyed academic success. He attended Launde Primary School in Oadby, Leicester, where his grandfather taught. The then headmistress, Sonia Hudson, recognised Jassa’s potential early on and urged his parents to send him to the local private school after finishing his primary education. It was while he was at Launde however, that Jassa was scouted by ex-Royal Ballet principal dancer Graham Fletcher who taught and helped to run the local Arts in Education dance schemes.
Jassa went along to Fletcher’s classes and fell in love with his engaging style and fun approach to dance. It wasn’t long before Jassa was asked to join the ballet classes. Though the classes catered towards a slightly older age group Jassa felt very much at home in the company of other young male dancers many of whom, like himself, had no prior interest in ballet but had been spotted by Fletcher purely for their potential. Jassa continued to train with Fletcher who then recommended he audition for the Birmingham Royal Ballet Junior Associates. Jassa was successful and was a Junior Associate for two years. Unfortunately the classical approach to training at the Birmingham Royal Ballet didn’t really compare with Fletcher’s methods and Jassa’s interest in ballet began to wane. It was also becoming more apparent that Jassa was physically less suited to pure ballet, resulting in him not being asked to return to the Birmingham Royal Ballet as a Mid Associate.
This did far from deter Jassa’s passion for performance and he set his sights on learning how to “dance like The Mask”. He kept up his training with Fletcher while also travelling down to London once a month to train as a Mid Associate of the Urdang Academy. Jassa had begun to feel a leaning towards musical theatre and had attended the Urdang Academy’s summer school twice in the past. The varied styles of dance taught at the Academy, as well as singing, appealed to him.
He very much enjoyed being a Mid Associate but transferred onto the newly founded and more focused Part Time Musical Theatre course. This course not only developed Jassa as a performer but exposed him to lesser known musicals, broadening his horizons.
Jassa was now 16 and careers and work experience were being discussed at school. Despite the ten A*s at GCSE that Jassa would go on to achieve he was not interested in a traditional career. He wanted to perform in the West End and so looked into backstage work at theatres. One of the people Jassa called while trying to make this happen was his late grandmother’s cousin, Duncan Heath, who runs talent agency Independent Talent. Rather than spend a week helping move sets around Duncan persuaded Jassa to do a week’s work experience at his agency to see how the industry worked.
That week turned out to be one of the most rewarding and formative experiences for Jassa. Being able to see how the entertainment industry operated as well as receiving advice from agents who dealt with household names gave Jassa a sense of direction. But that direction was not towards musical theatre.
During his work experience Jassa read feature film scripts, wrote script reports, and compiled breakdowns for various agents. This was the first time Jassa had laid eyes on a film script and as he started reading them he felt like he was watching them. He was able to get a sense of the characters and the action with ease; an asset that meant his reports received much praise. Jassa realised that screen acting was what he wanted to be doing. Becoming a character and experiencing their emotions seemed to resonate with him.
Having witnessed the importance and power of networking at the agency, Jassa began to build up his own list of contacts as he strived to learn more about the film and TV industry. It wasn’t long before he had managed to arrange a meeting with BBC producer Pier Wilkie at BAFTA and a phone call with Director of Drama Production, Nicolas Brown. Armed with yet more advice and determination Jassa began seeking out auditions.
Jassa’s initial break was a stroke of good fortune. One of his close friends from the Urdang Academy told him about a film she was auditioning for and urged him to audition himself. Jassa attended the open auditions and after a gruelling nine month nationwide audition process secured the lead role of Joe Spratt in the British independent film Journey to the Moon (yet to be released). The film could not have been a better introduction to the industry for Jassa. Journey to the Moon was to be the first film since Alan Parker's hugely successful Bugsy Malone to feature an all singing all dancing cast of children playing adults. Jassa’s ballet and musical theatre training combined with the insight he had gained during his work experience provided him with all the necessary skills the film called for.
It was while filming Journey to the Moon that Jassa began to take his singing seriously. For more information about Jassa’s singing and songwriting visit Singer-Songwriter.
As Journey to the Moon hadn’t raised his profile in the way he had hoped Jassa found himself searching out more auditions and job opportunities while starting his A Level studies at Beauchamp College. Things didn’t really seem to be going anywhere until Jassa was called by one of the producers from Journey to the Moon. He asked if Jassa could make it down to London to be an extra for an internet viral. Jassa was a little disappointed but recognised the potential to meet people. He raided his savings for a train ticket and armed with several headshots and CVs he went along. It was on that shoot that Jassa met a girl who worked for children’s agency Scallywags, whose sister had recently set up the talent agency Simon & How Associates. Details were exchanged and within a week Jassa was a professionally represented actor.
Jassa began auditioning and getting to know people in London while continuing his studies at Beauchamp College. He would frequently get a train or coach to London in order to audition during the week, fitting his school work in where possible. Beauchamp College were fantastically supportive and trusted Jassa in his career choices as well as his academic ability. During this time he filmed 10 pilot segments for children’s TV channel KidsCoTV as well as a speaking part in the feature film My Angel, starring Timothy Spall and Brenda Blethyn. While Jassa didn’t get a major break during his two years at Beauchamp College he did achieve straight A’s, allowing him to apply to University College London.
Jassa used university as a way into London. He studied Spanish and Russian at UCL, a course he enjoyed greatly, while continuing to audition. Towards the end of his first year the beginnings of his career began to take shape. He filmed a feature length drama for Kent Fire Service while taking his first year exams. Jassa was playing the lead role in the film, L2K, which focused on his character Steve and how his life was affected by a car crash he caused. This was a job that greatly developed his skills and ability on screen as both the character and the scenes were intense and demanding. A short film he had done, Assessment, was then an official selection at the 54th BFI London Film Festival and won the jury prize at the Film London Best of Boroughs Awards. These productions helped to raise his profile and then just as Jassa was moving back down to London to begin his second year at UCL he was called in for a meeting at Disney. He was subsequently offered the job as presenter of Art Attack.
Jassa is now pursuing his career as an actor, singer-songwriter and presenter full time and is grateful for the opportunity he has been given to live his dream and do what he loves.
For the latest news and information about Jassa visit News.