Meet Fil-Am Zoe Jensen: Broadway ’s latest queen is living the dream

by MoMar G. Visaya / AJPress

LANA Zoe Jensen is having the time of her life.

The Filipino-American performer officially made her Broadway debut in late 2022 as a principal cast of Six, a British musical that tells the story of the six wives of King Henry VIII, but with a contemporary twist. Jensen plays the role of Katherine Howard, the fifth wife.

“Not to be corny, but it’s literally a dream. Not to say that there aren’t hard things or things that aren’t perfect, but to get to wake up here,” she said. “And then walking to work is incredible. I walk through Times Square and I’m like, ’What am I doing here?’ It’s crazy.”

Two months in and the 25-year-old thespian looks back at her journey so far.

Jensen was born in San Diego, California to an American dad and a Filipina mom and lived there for a few years. Their family also lived in China for a few years due to her dad’s work before finally settling in Rockford, Illinois where she grew up.

She went to school at Southern Illinois University Carbondale majoring in musical theater and a minor in journalism. After graduating, she worked briefly in Cincinnati at the Children’s Theater where she met mentors who would introduce her to people who would help manage her career.

She moved to New York when she was around 20 years and booked her first New York gig, an offBroadway show called We Are The Tigers. Zoe then joined the cast of Dear Evan Hansen and became a standby for the roles of Zoey and Alana. On her first week of work there, she found out that she booked Hamilton.

From September 2019 to October 2022, with the

During the summer of 2022, she got an email to come into a final callback session for Six, and a few weeks later, she found out that I got in. Last October, she officially made her Broadway debut as a principal cast member of Six.

“It’s incredible, it’s so much fun because it’s such a fun show,” Jensen told the Asian Journal as she described the past few months of her stint with the show.

Six has developed a cult following, something that Zoe has seen personally. She told us the fans call themselves “queendom” and are among the most loyal in the theater world.

“Walking into the theater and hearing people outside already waiting for the show and singing along, it’s an incredible feeling. And then I get to be a part of a show that has confetti at the end and I get to see everyone’s smiling. I know that we’re making people happy,” she said.

“Let me say first off that when I was a kid, my favorite thing to do - I was an only child. - my favorite thing to do would be in front of the mirror in my room, lipsynch songs with a hairbrush as a microphone,” she recalled, mimicking those moments.

“I love karaoke, I mean I’m Filipino. So we love karaoke. I used to always do karaoke so to get to do that, for my first Broadway show, it’s like incredible.”

Hamilton and Six are both groundbreaking musicals based on historical figures and yet so different from each other in many ways and Jensen is thankful for being given the opportunity to shine on both.

“Six is pretty short, it’s a complete 180 from Hamilton,” she explained. “Obviously there is a responsibility on you as a principal in something like Hamilton but with Six it feels like it is the six of us, you need to be on you’re A-game because if you’re not like they can tell.”

“Some people might think that Six is harder vocally and it might be, but for me, I think that Six is a little easier because I’m in my happy place, that poprock kind of thing where you can kind of add some expression. Hamilton is so beautiful. I felt like Eliza