Jenna Ushkowitz

Jenna, who recently co-starred in the Tony Award-winning Broadway production of Spring Awakening with fellow Glee actress Lea Michele, thinks people love Glee because everyone has a vulnerable, geeky side. “People really seem to identify with [Tina’s] vulnerability. They come up to all the time and say, ‘I’m Tina!’ It’s fantastic!”

“Glee reaches a huge audience because it has such heart and it’s so positive,” says the 24-year-old, who was born in South Korea before growing up in New York. “Everyone roots for the underdog and wants them to win. People latch onto that.”

“It’s lovely whenever we see ‘Gleeks’. They say to us, ’we’ve started our own Glee Club at school.’ At a time when arts are being cut in schools, this show is a huge advocate for the arts in education.”

Jenna, who got her first big break on Glee says the now super famous cast had no clue that Glee would become such an international success.

“When people say to you, ‘this’ll be huge’, you can never expect that. You just have to be the best you can be. We loved working in a bubble for 13 episodes before anything had been aired. We never thought it would be like this!”

Jenna says the other obvious draw card for Glee is the musical performance aspect. “Music is a universal language…there’s a genre of music for everyone. Without music, Glee would be a completely different show. The series is story-driven, but the moment the moment they put music into it, it takes it to another level.”

It’s lucky Jenna, who appeared in The King And I on Broadway, is a very experienced musical-theatre performer – the Glee cast have to learn their routines in double-quick time. “We learnt our Lady Gaga number in a day!” Jenna says, referring to one of the show’s most popular episodes. “We’ve gotten pretty good at it now! It’s like a well-practiced formula. You prepare beforehand and on the day, you just get up there on the stage and make it work!” But according to Jenna, Glee fans still have a lot to look forward to in the second season.

"We’re so excited...every week we open the scripts and get to be so surprised. “Every day, we’re finding out something new about these characters and finding new layers to them. We come up with suggestions, but they’re never half as good as what the writers create. These writers have given us such a gift!”