Jo Champa

Jo Champa

Jo Champa (born January 23, 1968) is an actress, producer and model. Rosina Jo Champa was born in 1968 in Long Branch, New Jersey, but grew up in Rome, Italy. She became a model there as a teenager. Before the age of 18, she was already one of Gianni Versace's favorite models. As such she turned to the Italian film industry in 1986, with various screen acting assignments, for directors including Claude d'Anna (Salome, 1986), Ettore Scola (The Family, 1987), Massimo Troisi (Le vie del Signore sono finite, 1987), and Damiano Damiani (Il Sole Buio, 1990). At the pinnacle of her career, Champa returned to the United States, starring in Steven Seagal's Out for Justice (1991), followed two years later by Bernardo Bertolucci's Little Buddha (1993), and then Don Juan DeMarco (1994) by Jeremy Leven. In 1998, she married Joseph Farrell a Hollywood producer, influential member of the Academy, and had a son, Sean. Later in the ‘90s, she mostly worked for television guest starring in TV series such as Walker, Texas Ranger, JAG, and CSI: Miami. Champa can also be found in Helmut Newton's book Sumo where he found her to be one of his favorite models. Most recently, she was in Somewhere (2010), directed by Sofia Coppola.

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