Jasi Cotton Lanier was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and raised in the Carolinas. After graduating from University of South Carolina in Media Arts, she needed to pay her student loans so she began modeling, acting in horror movies, and she performed as a fire-eater. After shooting a movie in New Jersey, she fell in love with her co-star Joseph Anthony and decided to movie up north to study Meisner Technique with Glen Vincent sas well as the martial arts of ShotoKan Karate.
She continued to study acting in NYC with Olinda Turturro and Enzo Carolina, performing in many indie films, including The Resurrection Game, Nikos, B-Movie, and Fifth City.
Through a chance meeting at Pittsburgh Comicon she met artists Dave Nestler and Dorian Cleavenger. She approached them to do an interview for a magazine. After the interviews, she was asked to model for each artist and begin her career as an art model for comics, fantasy, pinup art, and romance novels. She was most notably was Joe Jusko’s Tomb Raider model for Top Cow comics for several years and featured on the cover of Heavy Metal Magazine in August 2003 and Heavy Metal Calendars by Greg Hildebrandt in 2005 and 2006. She has modeled for over 300 paintings thus far.
Though she loved modeling and acting in B- horror movies, Jasi realized her true passion was stunts. Inspired by her Uncle Dusty, who performed in live stunt shows in the 1960s and 70s and several articles about stuntwomen in the magazine Femme Fatales, Jasi set out to become a stuntwoman.
Jasi Cotton Lanier worked for a few years dabbling in stunts in independent movies and industrials but felt it necessary to make a change and she moved to Los Angeles in June of 2005. At first she did background work and was able to get her SAG card after being featured on 2 1/2 Men. Jasi then joined a stunt service and she began training at Bob Yerkes backyard stunt school where she learned the art of high falls, fights, swords and reactions.
It was at Bob Yerkes that she stuntman and stunt coordinator John Moio saw her sword fighting and recommended her for her first job on the show iCarly doubling a 14-year boy for stunt coordinator Vince Deadrick Jr. She had to practice sword-fighting with her left hand for an audition on Monday. With the help of her friend, and stuntman, Mario Perez, she trained all weekend, day and night, for the audition. On Monday, she showed up and she booked the job on the iFence episode of iCarly doubling actor Nathan Kress. She continued to work on iCarly (2008-2012) doubling actress, Jennette McCurdy for 4 years.
Continuing her training, Jasi booked a few jobs while also supplementing her income as a set decorator. In 2010, she decided to commit to stunts full time and it paid off.
Jasi has done stunts for the feature films The 5th Wave (2016), Insurgent (2015), Furious 7 (2015), Sabotage (2014) and Alice in Wonderland (2010). She has also done stunts on the television series The Walking Dead (2012-2015), The Vampire Diaries (2013-2016) Castle, Raising Hope, Vampire Diaries, and Criminal Minds. While continuing to work in stunts, Jasi is also acting, appearing in the short film Broken, on iCarley and more. She is featured on the all female “Jack Ass” style stunt show called Cherry Bombs affectionately known as Firecracker.
Jasi again modeled for artists such as Mike James, Greg Hildebrandt, Guy Powers, Age and Lorenzo Sperlonga. Her love for stunts has also allowed her to serve her community. She has volunteered and served as a department head for Stuntacular, a live Halloween stunt show that is a fundraiser for Make a Wish. She has served as an assistant board member for Diamond in the Raw Stuntwomen’s Awards and Secretary for the Stuntwomen’s Foundation.
Jasi Cotton Lanier continues to train in Kung fu, weapons, swords, acrobatics, boxing, and stunts. She is a certified PADI Rescue Diver and is adding stilt walking and fire staff to her skills set. Jasi enjoys roller-skating, tai chi, hula hooping, rock climbing, rappelling, and hiking in her free time. Her life philosophy comes from her father who taught her to “collect experiences”.
