Jessie, a proud American of Lebanese & Palestinian descent, was born and raised in the Middle East. She immigrated to America in the late 80's and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio state-side. She considers herself privileged to have lived and learned all over the globe. She is bi-lingual (speaks Arabic & English fluently) and values interactions with people of different cultures and ethnicities. Jessie has a Bachelor of Environmental Design in Architecture from Miami University of Ohio. Before she began working in the TV and film industry, she specialized in branding and architectural 3D visualizations for many prestigious firms with projects all over the world. Jessie’s education and experience in architecture, design, and construction made her exceptionally well equipped to handle the film industry’s demands and schedule. Jessie left architecture in 2011 and immersed herself in set designing for film and television in Chicago for the NBC series "Chicago Fire". Set designing on "Fire" for 4 seasons afforded her an invaluable education in television and film production. She began art directing in 2016 and has had the privilege to work on some challenging series and films since then, most notably “Twisters”, “Deli Boys”, "Saturdays”, "The Killer", "Ms. Marvel", "Fargo", "The Chi", "Better Call Saul", and “Sense8”. Jessie sees every new job as a learning opportunity and has been fortunate to work alongside and learn from some of the best designers and producers around, many of whom have been great mentors and friends over the years. Jessie has been nominated 5 times for an Art Director's Guild Excellence in Production Design award. These include the feature films, “Twisters”2025 and “The Killer”2024, and for work on episodic television shows - "Better Call Saul" Season 4 in 2019, and twice in 2021, for "Utopia" Season 1 and "Fargo" Season 4. Jessie has been working primarily as a Production Designer since 2021 and is looking forward to bigger and more challenging shows here in USA and internationally. She designed the reboot of "4400" Season 1, a sci fi fantasy for CBS / CW in 2021, "Saturdays" Season 1 for Disney Channel in 2022, & “Deli Boys”, the Pilot & Season 1, airing on HULU with ONYX / 20th Televison & Jenni Konner productions. Jessie lives in Chicago with her wife, the poet, Carla Barger-Haddad, and her dog-daughter, Lucille Ball. She enjoys traveling to connect with her friends and family across the globe.
