Jessica Simpson Biography Filmography Discography

Jessica Ann Simpson was born July 10, 1980 in Abilene, Texas and raised in Richardson, a suburb of Dallas, Texas. She is the daughter of Joe Truett Simpson (a former Baptist youth minister) and Tina Ann Drew (a former Sunday School teacher). She has a younger sister, Ashlee, who launched her own music career in mid-2004. Jessica started singing at the age of twelve as a part of her Baptist church choir. At the same age, she made an unsuccessful application for The New Mickey Mouse Club, which starred fellow pop singers Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, among other future stars.

Jessica attended J.J. Pearce High School in Richardson, Texas. She was discovered singing at a church camp by a head of a small contemporary Christian record label and recorded an album over the next three years; however, the label folded before the record could be released. She dropped out in her senior year in order to tour and promote her demo album, which was funded by her grandmother, Joyce (thus the reason for the name of her 2004 holiday album, Rejoyce: The Christmas Album); she later earned her GED. During this time, she toured with the Christian Youth Conference circuit performing with Kirk Franklin, God's Property and CeCe Winans. She and her father sold copies of the album after her performances.

Late of 1999, Jessica released her debut Pop album Sweet Kisses, which reached a peak of number twenty-five on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and also made the top forty of the U.K. charts. The album proved to be a success, selling two million copies in the U.S. The title track lead single, "Irresistible", reached the top twenty in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., as well as the top forty in Australia and Switzerland. A follow-up single entitled "A Little Bit" was also released, but failed to achieve much success. In 2002, Simpson released a remix album that failed to generate much interest among fans.
During the summer of 2001, Simpson's sophomore effort Irresistible was released and reached the top ten of the Billboard 200 and top twenty of the Canadian album chart.

October 26 2002, Jessica married Nick Lachey. Simpson famously announced that she remained a virgin until her wedding night, making Lachey the only man she had been with intimately. During the summer of 2003, Simpson and Lachey's reality show Newlyweds began airing on MTV. Although Simpson was moderately famous before the series began, the show is considered responsible for transforming her into a star.

The success of their new popularity, Jessica and Nick appeared on a variety show on the ABC called the Nick and Jessica Variety Hour in 2004. A pilot for a sitcom on ABC was also planned, but was rejected by network executives in May 2004. During that summer, Simpson won three Teen Choice Awards for Female Fashion Icon, Hottie Female, and Female Reality/Variety TV Star, further proving that Newlyweds had greatly strengthened her overall popularity. In 2005, the series won a People's Choice Award for Favorite Reality Show. Shortly after, Newlyweds wrapped.

Together with the Newlyweds, her third album, In This Skin, was released during the summer of 2003. On a whole, the record featured a more mature sound compared to her earlier releases. Though the album initially was not a huge success, it got its chance to rebound on the charts when a special collector's edition was released in the spring of 2004.

During the summer of 2005, Simpson made her first major film appearance as Daisy Duke in The Dukes of Hazzard. The film debuted at number one in the box-office charts, grossing more than thirty million USD. One of the tracks off the soundtrack for the film, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'", was sung by Simpson. The track won a People's Choice Award for Favorite Song from a Movie in early 2006.

Last year, November 2005, after months of speculation, Jessica Simpson and her husband Nick Lachey officially announced that they had split. Simpson filed for divorce on December 16 2005, citing "irreconcilable differences".

Jessica is currently working on her next album, And the Band Played On, is set to be released during the spring or summer of 2006. It has been described as having "a little bit of everything in it," and it will sound like "Billie Holiday, Patsy Cline, Stevie Nicks — it's all over the place. But then there's songs for us girls to dance to in the club," according to Simpson.

Discography

Sweet Kisses (1999)
Irresistible (2001)
This Is the Remix (2002)
In This Skin (2004)
Rejoyce: The Christmas Album (2004)
The Dukes of Hazzard (2005)
And The Band Played On (To be announced)

Filmography

The Master of Disguise (2002)
The Dukes of Hazzard (2005)
Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica - The Complete Seasons 2 & 3 (2005)
Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica - The Complete Final Season (2005)