Villa has worked as an actress and producer. From age 14 to 16, she was with Youth Network TV on Comcast Television. With the exception of Hobgoblins 2, her acting career mostly consists of minor, uncredited appearances on television. These roles include an umbrella-wielding carny in the Heroes Season 4 episode "Orientation", and other appearances on , The Valley Girls and MTV Next.
Grammy Award outfits
Villa is known for her attention-seeking outfits which she has worn to the Grammy Awards. These include:
For the 2015 Grammy Awards, she wore a see-through dress made entirely out of orange construction-fencing material, designed by Andre Soriano. The dress was called "unusual" and "a first."
For the 2016 Grammy Awards, she wore a similarly see-through dress consisting mostly of fabric spikes. The Huffington Post named it as one of its "Most Outrageous Looks From The 2016 Grammys."
At the 2017 Grammy Awards, Villa wore a blue dress, again designed by Andre Soriano, promoting President Donald Trump, featuring his campaign slogan "Make America Great Again" and the name "Trump". The publicity from the dress resulted in Villa's EP I Make the Static hitting number 1 among digital downloads on Amazon.com, and iTunes in the US. It climbed up the top 100 of several other countries' iTunes charts too, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Brazil. The album sold over 15,000 copies in the following two days, and debuted on the Billboard charts the next week at number 12 with 29,000 album equivalent units, 27,000 of which were pure album sales. The EP also ranked number 2 on the Digital Albums chart and number 6 on the Top Album Sales chart, as well as being the top-selling rock/alternative album of the week.
At the 2018 Grammy Awards, Villa wore a white dress with a hand-painted fetus inside of a rainbow uterus on it along with a purse bearing the slogan, "Choose Life."
At the 2019 Grammy Awards, Villa wore a reflective silver dress with a black outline of bricks all around except for an area with "Build the Wall" spelled out in red in a large section on the backside of the garment, borrowing the font of Pink Floyd's The Wall. She also wore a metallic collar signifying a barbed wire fence, a spiked crown referencing the Statue of Liberty, and sported a red "Make America Great Again" handbag.
Villa is a supporter of Donald Trump, having joined Donald Trump's Campaign Advisory Board. Villa had stated that she supported Senator Bernie Sanders early in the 2016 United States presidential election but soon switched to supporting Trump in the general election. On October 27, 2017, Villa announced on Fox & Friends that she is considering running for United States Congress as a Republican. Villa stated that she is considering Florida, California, or New York as states to represent. Appearing again on Fox & Friends on December 13, 2017, Villa clarified that she intends to run for Congress in the state of Florida. On May 5, 2018, Villa joined the UK March for Life in London. She led the march from Trafalgar Square to Parliament Square. In 2019, during a debate against a Black Lives Matter activist, Joy Villa referred to Black Lives Matter as a "terrorist organization". She also went on to complain about Black-on-Black crime and accused people who have been killed by the police of being criminals.
Personal life
Villa grew up in New York City and has lived in Hollywood, Seattle, and Santa Barbara, and currently resides in Los Angeles. She credits her practice of Scientology for improving her life and career. In December 2016 she married Danish writer and photographer Thorsten Overgaard. On September 25, 2019, she announced via social media she and Overgaard had filed for divorce. On November 28, 2017, Villa filed a police complaint against Trump's former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski for allegedly slapping her buttocks at a holiday party at the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C. Villa admitted she waited a month before talking to police. Villa alleged that after she told him that she could report him for sexual harassment, Lewandowski said, "I work in the private sector" and slapped her again. Lewandowski responded to the allegations by saying that "There is a due process and there is a process which they will go through to determine a person’s innocence."
