Hicks, who currently resides in Des Moines and works full time at TITLE Boxing Club, has been a busy woman as of late between appearing in an advertisement for CLIF bars, starring as the love interest in the music video for Iowa country singer Alex Arthur’s song “It Is What It Is” and taking on several movie and TV roles shot in the Hawkeye State. She was set to wrap on her second film project, the sci-fi horror “Operation: Crimson Night” from the Marengo-based studio Mediaverse, Saturday and will start on a third soon. According to its IMDB page, “Operation: Crimson Night” features several actors who have appeared in Marshalltown-area productions from Director Jude Rawlins in the past, including Cheyenne Goode, Amy Van Holland and Rob Merritt.

“I still continue to model, but it’s really transformed into movies and commercials,” she said. “I’m glad I started with modeling. It got me comfortable in front of the camera I would say because modeling really kind of fell into my lap. I wasn’t looking to become a model. I did about three years of modeling before any sort of film, TV or commercials came up. I was already kind of comfortable and confident enough so that when they started to come in, I had that confidence. And I now have different goals.”

On top of that work, Hicks recently completed a table read for an upcoming movie called “The Painter” set to start filming next summer in Iowa. With grants and incentives beginning to flow into the state, she predicts a coming surge of film and TV projects here that won’t require her to move to Los Angeles or Chicago.

She previously lived in the Windy City for a short time and didn’t notice much of a difference in the modeling opportunities that arose.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO — Hicks, donning a full body suit and a rifle, is pictured on the set of “Operation: Crimson Night.” She hopes to arrange a premiere screening at the Orpheum Black Box Theater in Marshalltown.

“I’m very comfortable here in Iowa, and I was just talking last night. I don’t know if I want to leave my family and friends as I get older,” she said. “But with these grants coming to Iowa, there’s gonna be, in the next probably five to 10 years, a boatload of different directors and artists coming to Iowa. So there’s gonna be some competition for LA… I’m happy that I get to be part of some of the first uses of these grants coming out.”

The aforementioned music video was shot over about eight hours in a small southern Iowa town — Hicks can’t recall which one — and released on July 13. Arthur recently performed at West Des Moines’ famed Val-Air Ballroom and was set to take the stage at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday. The concept for the song and video, she said, is reminiscence on a lost love and the singer turning to alcohol to numb the pain of a relationship coming to an end.

To be clear, though, she still usually introduces herself as a model if someone asks as Hicks feels she hasn’t “earned” the title of actor just yet. But if her work ethic and her recent output are any indication, that may well change very soon.

“It’s crazy how (through) life and just meeting certain people, you get guided into these other roles. I started modeling with one guy, and then I did his clothing line. He brought me onto his music video shoot, and then there was this other guy featured in that music video,” she said. “And then we ended up filming a TV show together. It’s funny how it just evolves over time. It’s really (about) who you know.”

And through all of these opportunities and evolutions, Marshalltown has always stayed close to Hicks’s heart. She’s been working on arranging a premiere screening of “Operation Crimson Night” at the Orpheum Black Box Theater, citing the fact that Rawlins, who moved to Marshalltown from the UK and shot several of his films in the area (he now resides in West Des Moines) had done the same for “Little Johnny Jewel” and “Dream Time.”

“I want to do the same and just pay homage to where I came from and show that I really haven’t left Marshalltown. My heart is there, and that’s where I grew up,” Hicks said.

She’s always willing to help promote local businesses as an “influencer,” in the modern parlance, recently posing for a photo to showcase the new Most Wanted Coffee truck. In keeping with her overall philosophy of letting things happen naturally and going with the flow, Hicks said she doesn’t necessarily look to a specific actress or model as her north star and always aims to forge her own path, wherever it may lead.

“A couple years ago, all my goals were model focused, and now I’m kind of just watching everything happen and just taking as much direction and advice as I can from everyone around me. And I think doing so has really helped me,” she said. “I think if I was to be a stickler on ‘Oh, you’ve gotta be like so and so,’ I would probably limit some of my chances. I want to just take every opportunity I can and run with it and make my own personality.”

As her dad, Marshall County YSS Director of Community Engagement David Hicks, told her, so much of what happens in her line of work is beyond her control, so Jillian is best suited embracing the mantra that, ironically enough, is also the name of the aforementioned song for which she starred in the music video — it is what it is.

“I’m so happy to be a part of that and be like ‘It really is what it is.’ I cannot control anything,” she said.

And although her mom Alyson has warned Jillian about pushing herself too hard and burning out, she enjoys the acting and modeling gigs so much that she barely considers them work. Dad, for one, is impressed by just how much of herself she’s poured into these self-described “hobbies.”

“Once she’s committed to a project, I don’t think anyone can outwork her – she shows up early, stays late, and does what is asked with a positive attitude because she is ‘all-in.’ That has built her connections,” David Hicks said. “I think that’s really the key behind her success. It’s her willingness and effort to work, learn, take direction, accept critiques, and being an active participant on the team. We are very proud of her and her willingness to say ‘I’m going to give this a try and I will learn as I go.'”

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.