[1] Born in Beaumont, Texas, the daughter of performers Ken and Sara Rush, Jessica made her stage debut at the age of ten weeks opposite her father as Motel and Tzeitel's child in Fiddler on the Roof.

Rush played Louise in Gypsy at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and won the Joseph Jefferson Award in 2014 for her performance.

as Renee in the pre-Broadway production of Gypsy opposite Patti LuPone, Boyd Gaines, Laura Benanti and Leigh Ann Larkin.

In March 2008, she joined the original Broadway revival cast of that company and was the standby for "Louise" under Benanti,[6] a role which she performed several times.

[7] Rush portrayed Lorraine in Jersey Boys at the August Wilson Theatre,[6] and was in the final cast when it closed its eleven-year run on Broadway.