JESS BREAKOUT ROLE - 'KIWIS DON'T REALLY CARE IF YOU'RE FAMOUS'

The Palmerston North actress is in demand after her part in Netflix hit 3 Body Problem

Walking red carpets in Los Angeles, London and Texas earlier this year, Jess Hong didn't know where to look. The Kiwi actress had never been to glitzy premiere events quite like these, and she was startled by the camera flashes and reporters calling her name.

"It was very awkward," she laughs. "Like, "Tell me what to do! Which way do I turn?" Hailed as the breakout star of Netflix's top-streaming new show 3 Body Problem, a sci-fi alien-invasion series with a very human heart, Jess, 29, is in hot demand.

She's stunned by how far she's come from the painfully shy, anxious little girl who grew up in Palmerston North and couldn't look anyone in the eye or start a conversation.

Jess tells, "At intermediate, if one of the popular kids spoke to me, they'd be like, 'Oh, my God, everyone, I got Jessica to talk!' Signing up to drama class in high school was my self-help challenge - a way to put myself in an uncomfortable situation in order to grow and it really worked. I got lucky that I loved it almost immediately."

Knowing that she could overcome the challenge is a tool that Jess who graduated from Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School - has used ever since.

It's a strategy that helped her leave family and friends to live in London for a year while filming 3 Body Problem. "I'd never lived by myself and never lived in another country and they were two things I really wanted to experience," says the star of Kiwi shows Inked and Creamerie. "It was lonely at first, but then so freeing."