Jessi Halimi was born in a backwoods town with two stoplights. She trained extensively as a dancer starting at the age of three and grew up being in at least one theatre production a year, including the local Winding River Players, Missoula Children's Theatre, and her high school's annual musical each Spring.

 

Two days after her 15th and final dance recital,  Jessi underwent a failed back surgery which ended her dance career. She moved to Poughkeepsie, NY to focus on acting full time, landing several principal roles in her college's theatre program, employment as a scare actor for Kevin McCurdy's Haunted Mansion, and a recurring role as Columbia in the Apoca-Lips Rocky Horror shadowcast.

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After her injury, Jessi became an outspoken advocate of disability rights and inclusion in the performing arts, using improvisational comedy and most recently the exploration of wheelchair burlesque to share a message that it's alright to laugh at your misfortunes; and sometimes laughter is the answer to your way out of the bottomless pit.

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