LI's Jenna Ushkowitz of 'Glee' expecting her first child
Jenna Ushkowitz, who grew up in East Meadow, played Tina on "Glee." Credit: Getty Images for Urban Arts Partnership / Monica Schipper
Former "Glee" star and Tony Award-winning Broadway producer Jenna Ushkowitz and her husband of six months, educational consultant and executive David Stanley, are expecting their first child together.
In an Instagram post Wednesday, the South Korea-born Ushkowitz, 35, who was raised in East Meadow by parents Judi and Brad Ushkowitz, announced, "Our hearts are so full … Baby Girl Stanley coming in June."
In an accompanying black-and-white photo, the couple stands outdoors flashing big smiles as Ushkowitz happily examines her pregnant belly, while a smiling Stanley places a hand on it.
Her message received supportive comments from actor Marla Sokoloff, who wrote, "I. AM. SO. HERE. FOR. THIS," adding two heart emoji, and from actor Nina Dobrev. Ushkowitz's "Glee" colleague Max Adler, who played Dave Karofsky on the 2009-15 Fox high school musical series, posted a series of a heart-eyed faces followed by the word "congrats!!!!!"
In a video on Instagram Stories, where posts cycle out after 24 hours, Ushkowitz said, "Good morning. I just wanted to pop on here and say thank you so much for all of the well-wishes, all of the love, all of the support — we are over the moon. I also just wanted to acknowledge that I know this is and can be a sensitive subject" when some women cannot conceive or cannot financially care for a baby. The graduate of Parkway School and of Holy Trinity Diocesan High School in Hicksville acknowledged "how lucky we are to be in this position and how grateful we are that we can be. So I just wanted to say that as well, but we are just overjoyed. So thank you so much to everybody."
Ushkowitz, whose character Tina Cohen-Chang, appeared in about 115 of the 129 episodes of "Glee," married Stanley, who works in nonprofit, political, philanthropic, and social-good ventures, such as the Los Angeles based Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, on July 24, 2021. Nearly a year earlier, on Aug. 2, 2020, she wrote on Instagram that she had accepted his proposal, saying, "Yes, a million times, yes."
