From “Puppies and Tiaras” to creating an award-winning web series, Jahnna Lee Randall has done it all as an actress, model and producer since moving to L.A. from the Star Prairie area a few years ago.
I met her when what was then the Twisted Grille in Hudson hosted a preview party of her stint on an MTV reality show, Meet Or Delete, where she swapped places with another model, from New York City, for a week, and it was all caught on camera (including her replacement’s awkwardness with cows). Randall was doing modeling in the Twin Cities at the time, and it led to an appearance on this show on MTV a few years back, and others like it.
All levels of Twisted Grille were packed with people for the preview party, and there also were cameras there from MTV and interviews done, readying for a follow-up broadcast.
Randall was wearing sometimes fuzzy, white-themed boots and sweater, and was the star of the show. This recollection I had recently led me to wonder, what’s she doing these days? That outfit from a few years ago could have been a clue.
Randall had developed her own film companies (yes plural), and her success in L.A. started with Puppies and Tiaras, which speaks for itself to a degree, and the video Fake Pocket Dial, both in 2012. In her full schedule, she spends her mornings auditioning, days filming and nights writing, she said. Often this work is in tandem with Gizmo the Chihauhau, as part of her film company Why Wait Productions, started after she decided to move forward strongly and stop waiting for gigs to simply appear. “Why Wait” does videos in the style of series, short films and sketches.
Randall’s work has won five awards at film festivals for best web series. Most recently, a series of 11 shows called Dating Disasters began airing on Tuesdays via YouTube, and there still are a few installments left.
She currently is shooting a music video, which is bringing her back to Minnesota and Wisconsin for filming!