J
ohnson was born in
New Westminster,
British Columbia,
Canada, as the sixth of ten children in her family. One of her sisters is a stage actress, and her brother Brendan is a musician with whom she often collaborates. From the age of two, Alexz would frequently sing for her large extended family. By the age of seven, she was receiving vocal training, participating in festivals with her local youth choir, and giving solo performances at school and community functions. She entered many talent contests and festivals, winning a National Anthem Contest at the age of 11, with her rendition of the National Anthem being heard on national television. This resulted in numerous radio and television interviews, as well as interest from management. That year, she was also voted Best Anthem singer of the season by the
Vancouver Sun. Locally, she was often referred to as our "West Coast Celine" and sang the National Anthem at games for the NHL team
Vancouver Canucks and the NBA team
Vancouver Grizzlies (now based in Memphis). She also performed at charity events and fairs around the province, in addition to the B.C. Summer Games. She opened the Variety Club show singing a duet with
Bob McGrath, sang the first set of songs at the
Molson Indy (a major car race), and entertained on New Year's Eve at
Planet Hollywood at the age of 12.
In 2004, Alexz sent in an audition tape to the upcoming show "Instant Star".It took that one audition tape to get her the part.Alexz Johnson sings all of the songs that her character Jude sings on the show. She has recorded four soundtracks for all of the seasons of
Instant Star:Johnson also decided to audition for the role of Julie Christenson in the thriller
Final Destination 3 . As it turned out, she showed up at the audition in an all black, punk rockish outfit, later claiming that she had also been in a bad mood. The casting directors concluded that she would be perfect for the role of Erin Ulmer, a character with a bad attitude.In September, 2007, Alexz appeared in the lead role in
Devil's Diary, a made-for-television movie, shown as the movie of the week on
Lifetime Television in the United States.
