Nancy Jo Baker

Nancy Jo Baker was born and raised in Selma, CA, the heart of the San Joaquin Valley. She was a performer from a very young age, singing, dancing, and playing piano and guitar. She became enthralled with acting in elementary school, where she was in her first stage play. By the time Nancy Jo attended Selma High School, she was working as musical director in her drama class, as well as conducting and accompanying in choir. She was her high school's Bank of America award winner in the category of Fine Arts. Acting took a back seat for some time, as Nancy Jo was a music education major at CSU Fresno. Most of her free time was spent studying piano performance, instead of acting. She began teaching music for Fresno Unified School District in 1980, but still managed to occasionally help out with local theater and church productions. From 2004-2008, Nancy Jo taught broadcasting, video production, beginning and advanced drama classes, as well as choir at Fresno's award-winning Edison-Computech Middle School. There, she produced Shakespearean comedies, and directed and choreographed full-length musicals. In 2011, Nancy Jo started working with Alan Autry's Actors Workshop. This lead to roles in several local commercials, print ads, shorts, and full-length features--and eventually a made-for-TV movie.