Jessica Nigri, born on August 5, 1989, is a cosplayer, model and social media star who has garnered millions of followers on all of her social media channels.
She was born in Reno, Nevada and when she was a toddler her family moved to Christchurch, New Zealand, where she lived until she was a teenager. In the early 2000s the family moved back to Arizona.
Jessica grew up as a nerd, due in part to her father, who introduced her to Dungeons and Dragon and video games.
Before she got into cosplay, she was thinking about becoming a nurse, because her mom was also a nurse. However after attending a walk-through with her mom,, she quickly decided that nursing was not for her and changed her major to journalism.
She started cosplaying in 2009 after attening her first comic-con, which inspired her and where she felt ‘at home’. She rose to cosplay stardom when she was 19 years old, when she debut in the cosplay scene with her “Sexy Pikachu”, which went viral on the internet. Her comic-con badge had her name and her hometown on it and people tracked her down. She says that when she got home that day, she thousands of new friend requests on her Facebook and Myspace.
On a typical day, if Jessica isn’t working on a cosplay costume, she says she wakes up at 6am, goes for a 6 mile run, works on crafts, answers emails, does some interviews and plays video games.
In an interview she reveals that the good part about the cosplay scene is the community and the bad part about cosplay is the jealousy.
Some of the criticism she has received over the years is that she is inauthentic, a ‘fake’ or a ‘poser’ and someone who is ruining cosplay by ‘oversexualizing’ it. One critics blasted her by saying:
“Nigri is the kind of person who found a niche by pandering her body in . . . cheap costumes that only mildly resemble a beloved character, and receives unwarranted attention from a demographic that doesn’t understand that her provocation doesn’t make it actually interesting . . . Nigri feels that [being more original would] only get in the way of her chest.”
When asked about what it’s like to have a huge following, she says she tries not to think about it, because she wants to avoid letting it get to her head and change her.
The first video game she ever played was Resident Evil and her favorite video game of all time is Gears Of War 2.
Her favorite concert was The Legend Of Zelda Symphony.
Her favorite sci-fi movie is Dune.
Her favorite snack is Taco Bell’s Crunch Wrap Supreme.
Her favorite smell is the smell of Mango and she admits that she like pineapple on her pizza.
And her favorite thing to put in a burrito is chicken, guacamole, corn, cheese and sour cream.
Jessica is not married, however she is in a relationship with fellow cosplayer, Ryan Brandt (FakeNerdBoy).
The piece of advice she would give to people new to the cosplay scene is to not listen to the haters online and just to do your thing and to just have a good time.
Follow Jessica Nigri on her Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter
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