Born and raised in East Nashville Tennessee, Jessica trained as an actor at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles before moving to New York City in 2009 to pursue stand up comedy.
Looking for an adventure and stage time Watkins hit the road in 2014 on a walking standup tour. Her feature length docu-comedy, Jessica Watkins: SPECIALish, of which she shot, wrote, directed and produced follows the walk across America. Lasting eight months, spanning from Delaware to California, Jessica performed standup comedy in a dozen states, living out of a running stroller and off the generosity of strangers. Named “exceptional” by The New York Times and “the 11th best comedy special of 2021” by Paste Magazine, SPECIALish is now available on all streaming and on demand platforms.
Jessica starred and co-produced the feature film Bad Batch, wrote and hosted the web-series Let’s Take a Walk With Jessica Watkins and Tiki, was featured at 2019 Bonnaroo Music Festival, Accidental Comedy Festival, Chicago’s Women’s Funny Festival, helped break the 2015 Guinness World Record for longest running continuous standup show (80 hours), toured for three weeks in Central America performing standup with Comedy Abroad raising money for local education, and most recently toured opening for comedian Hari Kondabolu.
