Jessica Chapnik

Jessica Chapnik Kahn is an Argentine Australian poet, singer-songwriter, actress and writer. Her solo music is released under the moniker Appleonia. She is also known for her role as Sam Tolhurst/Holden in the Australian television drama Home and Away (2006–08).

Early life Chapnik Kahn was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She immigrated to Sydney, Australia along with her family when she was five years old. On arriving to Australia, speaking no English, they lived in an immigrant hostel for one year. She was brought up in an Argentine Spanish-speaking home (she is fluent in Spanish). She is of Jewish and Italian descent and was raised with a blend of religious and cultural influences. After high school, Chapnik Kahn attended the University of New South Wales in Sydney and graduated with a degree in theatre and film and sociology.

Career

Music career Chapnik Kahn formed her first band at the age of 17. After one year, the band dismantled and she toured nationally and internationally playing keyboards and singing in the bands of artists and bands such as Sarah Blasko, Old Man River, and the Kahn Brothers. While touring, Chapnik Kahn met musician Ben Lee and the two later began collaborating on music projects.

In 2008 Chapnik Kahn recorded the soundtrack for the Australian film The Square, directed by Nash Edgerton. All songs were written and produced by Ben Lee, and sung by Chapnik Kahn. The album was nominated for an Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Award for "Best Original Soundtrack".

Following this album, Chapnik Kahn re-invented her solo persona as Appleonia.

In 2013, Chapnik Kahn teamed with musician Nadav Kahn and scored the film Despite the Gods, a documentary directed by Penny Vozniak which closely follows the journey of director Jennifer Chambers Lynch as she makes her film Hisss in India. The soundtrack was released in 2013 and features the song "She is the Sun" which Chapnik Kahn sang with Craig Nicholls from The Vines.

Chapnik Kahn again collaborated with Ben Lee, co-writing and co-producing his album Ayahuasca: Welcome to the Work, released in April 2013. The album is a sonic documentation of her and Lee's experiences with the South American healing medicine, ayahuasca.

In 2014 she released her album OH, which was recorded over a few continents and over several years. It features the handiwork of several collaborators including Dntel, Ian Ball and Nadav Kahn.

In 2022, Chapnik Kahn performed a rendition of the folk song The Water Is Wide with her husband, musician Nadav Kahn, for the closing moments and end credits of the Australian film Everything in Between.

Acting career Chapnik Kahn trained as an actress in New York City for two years at the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School, which was founded by playwright David Mamet. While living in New York, she acted in a string of plays, and on returning to Sydney she continued working in theatre. In 2006 she joined Australian TV drama Home and Away, playing Sam Tolhurst/Holden.