Online Superstar

The inaugural Forbes Web Celeb 25 – “a list of the biggest, brightest and most influential people on the Internet” – is topped by Mt Maunganui-raised actress Jessica Rose. Last year the 19-year-old became a YouTube phenomenon by posing as Bree, a home-schooled US teenager with the user name lonelygirl15. Bree’s video diary became an online hit, attracting millions of fans both before and after it was exposed as being entirely scripted. Forbes: “Rose put a pretty face on a breaking phenomenon: that Internet-based entertainment provides an intensely powerful incubator for new stars.” Rose was born in Maryland, USA, and moved to NZ when she was eight. In 2005 she returned to the US and is currently based in LA. According to Forbes, she is now being offered movie roles and has just filmed a TV commercial for a United Nations anti-poverty campaign.