American actress and model Jessica Stroup was born on October 23, 1986 in Anderson, South Carolina. Stroup is of Danish descent. She left her hometown at age 17 and moved to Los Angeles, California to find work as a model and actress. She found her first acting job in the Nickelodeon series Unfabulous, starring Emma Roberts. Her next role was in the 2005 CBS TV movie Vampire Bats, a sci-fi horror film with Lucy Lawless. In 2006, Stroup was cast in Pray for Morning before working with the Fox network on another TV movie, Southern Comfort. That year, she starred with Billy Bob Thornton and John Heder on School for Scoundrels and landed a small role in an episode of another Nickelodeon series, Zoey 101.
She was next seen in Broken and as Jillian Miller in the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. Stroup also made an appearance on Girlfriends and Left in Darkness. She continued to star in horror films like The Hills Have Eyes II, where she played the lead character known as Amber. This was followed by another film, This Christmas, written and directed by Preston A. Whitmore II. Stroup has also been cast in the series October Road and had a minor role in the horror series True Blood. She followed this up with a role in Reaper, playing Cady for four episodes from 2007 to 2008. She soon found herself as Claire in the remake of the 1980 slasher film Prom Night. It originally starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Nielsen, but the 2008 film casts Brittany Snow, Scott Porter, Dana Davis and Jonathan Scaech as well. Stroup was soon given a role in the film Homecoming, another thriller directed by Morgan Freeman. She will be playing her role of Elizabeth Mitchum alongside actors Mischa Barton and Matt Long. Stroup has also accepted the role of Daphne Silver in the teen television drama 90210, the fourth series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 continuity.