Jacqueline Toboni Biography

While still studying at St. Ignatius College Preparatory, Jacqueline Toboni began performing in the Young Conservatory at the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) in San Francisco. In February 2014, while studying at the University of Michigan, she was discovered by screenwriter, director, and producer Jim Kouf, who had come to speak to her screenwriting class. He did a table read with the students and sorted out some of them. To give them a feel of the audition process, he allowed them to read the script for the young female character of Trubel, a major upcoming character on the third season of the NBC television series 'Grimm'. Despite the fact that Jacqueline had no prior professional experience in movies and television, she stunned Kouf with her taped reading. He then convinced NBC executives and the show’s production company Hazy Mills to hire her for the role, following which she had to fly to Los Angeles to read for the part again alongside experienced LA actresses. Later, she also had to do a screen test with David Giuntoli in Portland, but she eventually bagged the role and made it a fan favorite in no time. Interestingly, just after she was selected for the role, her mother co-incidentally recovered a Grimm brothers' fairy tale book which was by her bedside all the time. She went on to portray Theresa 'Trubel' Rubel for three seasons between 2014 and 2017. She later got a recurring role on the Netflix series 'Easy' and also appeared in a few movies and TV shows.

Talking about her role of 'Truble' in an interview, Jacqueline Toboni said that she draws upon her childhood self "that just wanted to be a tomboy so badly" to portray the character. She was the little rascal growing up and was part of the neighborhood group that used to create hassles for everyone such as doorbell ditching and planting smoke bombs on people's doorsteps. Asked about if she trained for all the fight scenes, she revealed that she is certified in stage combat from her time in Michigan. While she does have a stunt double, she often does her own stunts, and once had run onto a car and drop-kicked somebody in the face.

Jacqueline Toboni was born on February 18, 1992, in San Francisco, California. She is Italian from her father's side and Irish from her mother's side. She did her school graduation from St. Ignatius College Preparatory, in San Francisco, in 2010. She next enrolled into the University of Michigan to study theatre. While she had to postpone her studies for a few months after getting the role of Trubel on 'Grimm', she returned to complete her graduation with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in May 2014. Side-by-side her studies, she also attended a number of theatre programs. She was an apprentice at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and also went to the Movement Theatre Studio in New York and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She is the youngest of her parents' five children and has three brothers and a sister. Her eldest brother, Michael, is a doctor; her second brother, Joey, is a contractor in San Francisco; and her third brother is a scout for Red Sox. Her sister, Gianna Toboni, works as a correspondent and producer for VICE news on HBO and was named among 30 influential people under 30 by 'Forbes'.