Jessica Falkholt had established herself as a rising star in Australia's TV and film industry before the tragic car crash that claimed her life and those of her immediate family.
In recent years the 29-year-old found fame on the small screen as Hope Morrison in Home and Away, with the long-running TV soap paving the way for her feature film debut in the forthcoming supernatural thriller Harmony.
Born in May 1988, Ms Falkholt was raised in Sydney with her younger sister Annabelle by their Swedish father and Italian mother.
The sisters were critically injured and lost both their parents when the car they were all travelling in collided with a four-wheel drive on the Princes Highway near Ulladulla on the NSW South Coast on Boxing Day.
Annabelle died in hospital three days later and Ms Falkholt succumbed to her injuries with doctors at St George Hospital switching off her life support equipment more than two weeks after the crash.
She died on Wednesday, a week after hundreds of mourners had gathered in Sydney for the funerals of her parents Lars and Vivian, and sister Annabelle.
Jessica Falkholt nurtured her love of acting while completing a Bachelor of Arts in Media and Communication at the University of NSW, where she starred in several theatrical society productions including the musical Cabaret.
After graduating, she found production jobs at the Seven Network and Carnival Films and began building a portfolio of acting work thanks to TV commercials.
In 2012 she won a place at the prestigious acting school NIDA, where she spent three years honing her craft.
Shortly after being accepted at NIDA, Ms Falkholt had her first breaks on TV with bit parts in the Nine Network dramas Tricky Business and Underbelly - Badness.
Following her graduation from acting school, Summer Bay beckoned, with the young actress scoring a role on Home and Away as Hope Morrison for 16 episodes in 2016.
Hope, who lived with Pia Miller's character policewoman Kat Chapman, caused quite a stir among the locals before making a dramatic exit by being taken off to prison.
A co-starring role in the short film Green River: Part One followed in 2017, with the Australian actress playing Diana in the drama about 30 women who went missing from a small town in America in the mid 1980s.
Then came her big screen break in the supernatural thriller Harmony, starring alongside fellow Australian actors Jacqueline McKenzie and Eamon Farren.
In the film, which is scheduled for release in 2018, she plays a woman named Harmony who has the power to absorb fear from others but is on a quest to find love.
