Biography
After years of guest appearances and turns as a series regular on short-lived weekly series, actress Justine Lupe's perseverance paid off with roles on the Stephen King adaptation "Mr. Mercedes (Audience Network, 2017- ) and FX's drug cartel drama "Snowfall" (2017- ). Born May 31, 1989 in Denver, Colorado, she was raised in a family steeped in education and the performing arts: her grandmother, Katherine "Kay" Schomp, was a founding figure in the Denver School of the Arts, while her father, John Lupe, was an exhibition specialist at the Denver Art Museum and her mother, Katherine Schomp, was a social worker and teacher. Lupe also took up acting as her chosen profession, earning degrees from the Denver School of the Arts in 2007 and the Julliard School in 2011. That same year, she began working in features and on television, and landed her first assignment as a series regular in 2012, playing a novice attorney on the NBC legal drama "Harry's Law" (2011-2012). After supporting turns in two independent features - David Chase's coming of age drama "Not Fade Away" (2012) and "Frances Ha" (2013) with Greta Gertwig - she returned to series regular work on "Cristela" (ABC, 2014-2015), a vehicle for comedian Cristela Alonzo for which she played the scatterbrained daughter of Alonzo's boss (Sam McMurray). It, too, lasted a single season, but Lupe rebounded with steady guest work on network programs before landing series regular and recurring roles in a pair of high-profile series: on "Mr. Mercedes," she played a young woman struggling with mental issues, while in "Snowfall," she played a woman searching for her missing sister in 1980s-era Los Angeles.
