I’ve a Fair way to go ...but I’m training to be a teacher
Former soap star Jenny on what’s coming next
FORMER Fair City star Jenny Dixon has told how she’s gone back to the classroom having swapped acting for teaching.
She set out on a different career path, graduating with a first class honours science degree in zoology and a post grad from Trinity College.
But Jenny, best known for playing lovable ditsy beautician Kerri-ann Bishop, moved to LA in 2012 to pursue her dream of becoming an actress.
She became a firm favourite in Carrigstown with a central role in some sensational plot lines during her five years on the RTE soap.
But now she’s “straddling both worlds”, teaching again part-time, auditioning for Hollywood roles – and learning Chinese.
Dubliner Jenny told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “I think I really took away from it in LA that you can have it all – brains and beauty.
“Over there it was encouraged to be an actor, a dancer, all those things.
PASSION
“I really liked the idea that you could follow your passion and do the things you love.”
The actress left the soap in 2018 when her character met a grisly end at the hands of vengeful mother Aoife for stabbing Karen.
Sensationally just weeks after giving birth to her first baby on the soap, the blonde beauty was killed off as the whodunnit plotline reached a dramatic climax.
Jenny has no regrets leaving the show, though she admits seeing her face with “murderer” on it came as a shocker at the time.
She said: “It was on the front page of all the newspapers, ‘Kerri-ann the murderer’.
“The whole ‘whodunnit’ was exciting and Kerri-ann was the least suspected person, being the most innocent character.
“I’ve seen some actors only coming in for two days on Fair City, I had the luxury of a five-year run.
“I got a chance to play big soap storylines, it was iconic, giving birth was such a great storyline.”
Jenny said she’d be up for returning
I’ve seen some actors coming in for two days, I had the luxury of a five-year run
JENNY DIXON ON HER FAIR CITY DAYS
to Carrigstown – even in a dream sequence. She said: “I could come back in Dallas-style, where the character comes back in a dream sequence, they could go a little fantasy in an episode.”
Because her character was “ditsy” Jenny said she is still haunted by this by fans in the shops. Jenny married Limerick politician Tom Neville in 2019 with Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar and half the Fair City cast among the guest list.
The loved-up couple had their reception at the five star Powerscourt Hotel where Pippa O’connor had also tied the knot.
Jenny said: “We met at a film festival launched in Dublin, The Limerick Richard Harris Festival.
“I think I had just finished filming a day at Fair City, I thought I’d pop along for an hour.
“I saw this dapper guy in a suit at the bar, he asked to buy me a drink.
“I was meeting somebody else that night, so it was an interesting turn of events. We kept messaging each other after and the rest was history.”
After landing a “coup” of an audition for a Disney movie recently, the actress and teacher is optimistic for the future. She said: “I didn’t get it but I was so honoured to get the call.
“I think it’s great that women are getting more diverse interesting roles and more stories being told.
“Whatever about modelling or other sectors if it’s different but with acting there are different niches and you can’t all look the same on film and TV.”