Alisha Boe is one of the new talents looking to make it big in Hollywood. She is gorgeous, charming, and supremely talented. Alisha looks like she has what it takes to become a huge name in the acting industry.
Alisha is pretty young, but she is already one of the most recognizable actors. She has many years ahead of her, and there is no doubt that she is going to be a huge star.
Boe’s rise to the top is the result of her natural talent, hard work, and persistence. Keep reading to find out more about Alisha Boe.
Alisha abandoned her Norwegian language after the family moved to the United States
Alisha Boe was born in Norway to a Norwegian mother and a Somali father. She didn’t get to spend a lot of time with her father since her mom moved with her to Los Angeles when Alisha was seven. Her mom then married an American.
Boe was quick to forget her Norwegian roots once she got to the US. She revealed to W Magazine;
“I completely denied my Norwegian culture and was like, ‘I don’t want to have an accent anymore,’ My mom would speak to me in Norwegian and I would speak back in English. A year later, I tried Norwegian and I couldn’t. What a concept: actually just forgetting your whole first language.”
Boe started her performance career as a dancer
Alisha knew from a young age that she wanted to be a performer. She started her on-stage career in dance shows and plays. She revealed to W Magazine;
“Performing was always something that was part of me. I started with dancing and I loved being on stage. I think I just really loved the immediate satisfaction of making people happy, and I would feed off their energy. Or maybe it was just attention seeking, who knows.”
Alisha struggled to nail down roles due to her mixed ethnicity
Alisha decided that she wanted to become an actor when she was pretty young. She decided to quit dancing to focus on her acting career. Alisha joined an after school acting program that reenacted scenes from famous shows.
Alisha’s motivation to become an actor peaked when she played the role of Michelle in a reenactment of the show, Full House. After the show, she went home and, she told her mom that she had decided to become an actor.
However, it wasn’t easy for Alisha to land an acting role. She auditioned a lot, but she only seemed to get opportunities to appear in ads. Alisha once did an ad for Sears alongside Kylie Jenner. It was a trying time for her and, she decided to give up.
She told W Magazine that the main reason why she couldn’t land a role was because of her ethnicity;
“Honestly, it was hard for me to book roles as an early teen, because it wasn’t inclusive then for mixed or ethically ambiguous or black people, in general. I would be sent out for Hispanic roles, but I don’t look Hispanic. I’d be sent for black roles, but I’m too white, and I’m too white to be black. They’d even send me on Asian roles.”
It was a difficult period for her, but she managed to get through it.
Alisha’s stellar performance in 2008’s Amusement led to appearances in subsequent films and shows
After her mini-retirement, Alisha decided to get back into the game. She got back to auditioning and, she had better luck.
She landed her first role in the horror flick, Amusement. She played the role of Lisa Swan in the 2008 movie. Alisha impressed with her natural talent and, in 2009, she appeared in He’s On My Mind and Plastic Makes Perfect!
She has gone on to appear in movies such as Paranormal Activity 4, 68 Kill, and Gates of Darkness. Alisha has also acted in a several TV series including Days of Our Lives, Modern Family, Teen Wolf, Trophy Wife, Robot Chicken, and many more.
Her most famous role is in the TV series, 13 Reasons Why. She plays the role of Jessica Davis in the series.
Alisha auditioned for Hannah Baker in 13 Reasons Why but she ended up playing Jessica
13 Reasons Why is a popular TV series. The show centers on the life of Hannah Baker, who battles depression to the point where she commits suicide. It focuses on how the actions of various characters in her life led her to the decision to kill herself.
The show received plaudits for how it portrayed the key issues of depression and acceptance among the youth. Initially, Alisha auditioned for the role of “Hannah Baker”. She had read the book from which the series is adapted and, she felt that the role suited her.
However, the directors offered her the role of Jessica. In her head, she didn’t feel that it was the appropriate role for her. Alisha talked to W Magazine about the casting;
“I was so surprised when I booked 13 Reasons Why…When they asked me to audition for Jessica, I disconnected with it. She’s supposed to be a pretty, popular teenager, and in my head, just from being brainwashed from all these breakdowns growing up, it’s a blonde girl with blue eyes.”
However, the directors thought otherwise, and they selected her for the role. Alisha told W Magazine that it was a dream come true; “It was a dream come true for me. I didn’t expect it to come that fast.”
Alisha’s role on 13 Reasons Why gave her a lot of exposure in the industry. The show got a lot of attention from fans and, it raised the profiles of all the actors on the show. When the show premiered, Alisha had about 5000 followers on Instagram. Two weeks after it premiered, her following grew to 1 million.
Boe had a tough time growing up and struggled with depression throught high school
13 Reasons Why is a show that portrays the disastrous effects of depression. Alisha was already exposed to depression before she stared on the show.
In a video posted by FansTang on YouTube, Alesha explained that she experienced harassment in middle school;
“I went to this very, very tiny charter school for one year, seventh through eighth grade, and it was the worst experience of my life because the girls were so mean and would exclude me, and any little thing I would do wrong, it was just magnified by a million.”
Alisha also explained that in high school, she knew girls that battled depression. Alisha told W Magazine that in her early acting career, she had issues with her identity;
“Growing up, I would go through phases where I would straighten my hair because I went to a predominantly white high school where people would look at me and say, ‘Alisha you’re pretty for a black girl.’ Then I thought being black was wrong and I wanted to take away my blackness.”
Alisha also had relatives and friends that battled depression. Her experiences inspired her to do justice to her role. It became important for her to portray the effects of harassment, depression, and rape vividly.
Alisha’s character experiences rape during the show. Seventeen reports that after reading the script, Alisha called a close family friend who is a rape survivor. Alisha’s friend gave her extra motivation for her role;
“She was so grateful that we weren’t shying away from the ugliness, because she told me that is the only way that people are really going to understand a rape survivor’s mind.”
Boe and other 13 Reasons Why stars are part of an mental health awareness organization called Project Semicolon
Project Semicolon is a movement dedicated to battling mental illness among the youth. The project gained popularity after 13 Reasons Why came out. The organization’s website explains why they used the semicolon symbol;
“A semicolon is used when an author could have chosen to end their sentence, but chose not to. The author is you and the sentence is your life.”
Selena Gomez and the 13 Reasons Why cast have dedicated themselves to ensuring the success of this project. To show their commitment to the cause, Alisha, Selena, and Tommy Dorfman decided to get matching semicolon tattoos to raise awareness about the project. Selena aired the entire tattooing session on her Instagram stories.
The movement means a lot to the 13 Reasons Why cast. After getting their tattoos, Tommy Dorfman posted an Instagram photo of the trio displaying their finished tattoos. He captioned the photo; “Alisha, Selena, and I went to get ; tattoos…For us, it means a beginning of another chapter in life, in lieu of ending your life.”
Tommy then explained his story about his struggle with depression.
Alisha is very secretive about her dating life but was once rumored to be dating Scott O’Brien
Alesha is pretty secretive about her dating life but, it was once rumored that she was dating Scott O’Brien. It’s unclear whether the rumors were true or false.
What we can tell about her social life is that Alisha maintains a close relationship with the 13 Reasons Why cast. The actors love hanging out together, and they post their experiences on social media. Alisha is particularly close to Tommy, and she even referred to him as her “best friend.”