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Amy Jo Johnson (born October 6, 1970) is an American actress, singer, songwriter and musician. She is best known for her roles as Kimberly Hart, the first Pink Ranger of the Power Rangers franchise in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and as Julie Emrick on The WB's college drama Felicity. She played Stacy Reynolds on the Lifetime police drama The Division, and in 2005 she joined the cast of the TV drama Wildfire. Johnson is currently playing Julianna “Jules” Callaghan in a new CTV TV series called Flashpoint.

Biography

Early life

Johnson was born in Dennis, Massachusetts on Cape Cod, a daughter of Greig Johnson, a car salesman, and his wife Christine, who managed a clothing store.¹² She became interested in gymnastics and after training for years, decided to aim for the Olympic Games. She eventually reached Class One - the highest status in gymnastics - and participated in competitions hosted in the United States and Europe in all four events: uneven bars, vault, beam and floor. She was forced to abandon gymnastics following a severe injury. In an interview for the E! Entertainment Network, Johnson divulged that because of trouble she and a boy got into, they were barred from graduating with the rest of their high school class. They were eventually allowed to graduate in a separate ceremony just for them.

Career

At the age of eighteen, after graduating from Dennis Yarmouth Regional High School,³ Johnson left Cape Cod and moved to New York City in order to pursue her acting career. She attended the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and the American Musical and Acting Academy. When Johnson felt comfortable with her skills, she left for Los Angeles to audition for her first part.

Johnson's first role was also her most notable to date, as Kimberly Ann Hart, the Pink Ranger, in the 1993 series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. She acquired the role within the first month of her main stay in L.A. Her gymnastics background was a clear advantage for her in fight scenes, and the Hart character was also an accomplished gymnast like herself. Her martial arts skills were taught to her by many choreographers in the studio. The series achieved unexpected success and Johnson had a fair share of media exposure, both as the character and as herself. After she left the series in 1995, Johnson went on to star in the made-for-TV Disney Channel film Susie Q in 1996. That same year, she guest-starred alongside Wally Wingert in the Saved by the Bell: The New Class episode "Backstage Pass" as Linda. In that same year, Amy also appeared in a Fruit Gushers commercial where her head turned into a giant strawberry. In 1997, she participated in NBC's adaptation of Lois Duncan's novel Killing Mr. Griffin and also played a gymnast with an eating disorder in the movie Perfect Body. She also reprized her role as Kimberly Hart alongside Austin St. John as Jason Lee Scott in Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, a 1997 movie in which her character was sacrificed in a volcano to Divatox's fiancee Maligore and resurrected as an evil being. Though she stated in the I Love the '90s 1993 special that being the Pink Power Ranger is something she would never live down, while she was on The Sharon Osbourne Show Johnson said that Power Rangers was a great first job.

In 1996, Johnson co-starred with Justin Whalin in the Disney's made-for-television film Susie Q. Also in 1998, Johnson played the part of a vampire in the cult indie movie Cold Hearts, around the same time as nude photos of her (some real, some faked afterward) surfaced on the internet. Soon after, she was invited to play the second most notable role of her acting career: Julie Emrick, a college freshman who becomes the best friend of the lead actress of The WB series Felicity. She was in the series for two and a half years. Her character in the series was originally cast as a dancer, but Johnson managed to convince the producers to turn the role into that of a singer and guitarist, which eventually led Johnson to being able to play a song of her own composition, entitled "Puddle of Grace." The song was added to the show's official soundtrack. Her talent in music also led her to star in the movie Sweetwater: A True Rock Story, a biography about the life of singer Nancy Nevins, whose band Sweetwater opened the Woodstock festival.

Johnson then took roles in a number of indie movies, namely Interstate 60, Pursuit of Happiness and Hard Ground. She also had a role in the final season of the television crime drama The Division. She released her debut album, titled The Trans-American Treatment, and performs live in the Los Angeles area alongside "The Amy Jo Johnson Band". She later dropped the band and limited the instrumental presence in her shows to her acoustic guitar and her voice. She released another album titled Imperfect on March 2005.

In 2006, Johnson co-starred in Magma: Volcanic Disaster, a Sci-Fi Channel original made for TV movie. She played a college student who begged to go on an expedition. Johnson has also taken roles on ABC Family's original show Wildfire as famous jockey Tina Sharp, and appeared in the pilot and recurring episodes of What About Brian. She has also taken on roles from two new independent films, "Veritas, Prince of Truth" and "The Islander". Johnson also starred alongside Carol Alt in the Lifetime Television movie, Fatal Trust. Most recently, Amy continued her run on What About Brian as Karen, who is Brian's girlfriend.

In December 2007 she contributed guest vocals to Koishii and Hush's cover of The Cars track "Since You're Gone".⁴

Johnson is currently starring in a new police drama called Flashpoint. She plays Jules Callahan, a member of the Strategic Response Unit of the Toronto Police service. The series premiered on CTV and CBS July 11, 2008.⁵ The pilot episode attracted 8.23 million viewers making it a CBS hit; including Canadian viewers, it was the highest watched show in North America.⁶

Personal

On June 24, 2008 Johnson was reported as expecting her first child with her fiancé Oliver Giner.⁷⁸

Discography

• The Trans-American Treatment (2001), Sneaky Alligator
• Imperfect (2005), Sneaky Alligator
• Since You're Gone - Single (2008)
• Dancing In-Between - Single (2008), Cozy Life

References

External links

• Official Website
• Amy Jo Johnson at MySpace
• Amy Jo Johnson at the Internet Movie Database
• Amy Jo Johnson at TV.com