Extra ordinary

And so, after agreeing on a venue that's a mere 20- minute stroll from her gated community, she's more than happy to give up a couple of hours of her day off from the Ugly Betty set to chat over lunch.

Right on time, I meet the diminutive 38-year-old at the doorway of the stylish caf, nestled in a quiet street just off Hollywood Boulevard. Dressed in T-shirt, jeans and flat shoes, with her blonde hair casually swept away from her fresh face, she looks every inch the off-duty actress.

But before we can talk, there's the issue of noise. It's lunchtime and the levels are fairly ear-crunching.

"Are you going to be able to hear me in here?" she shouts over the clatter and loud music. We decamp to a quieter sushi bar two doors down, where we study the complicated menu – until she dissolves into an infectiously full-throated laugh. This, I discover, is something she does a lot.

"I have no idea what any of this is, have you?" she giggles, flicking through the pages.

I have to tell her no. I've been in LA for a little less time than she has and the concept of a California roll is still completely baffling. In the end we settle on teriyaki chicken and salmon with rice, as these are two pictures on the menu that we both recognise.

"They don't tell you the rules about living in LA," she confides. "There's all this unwritten stuff that you have to learn by yourself. For instance, who would have known this restaurant was here? Like most places, there's nothing on the outside, so you have to re-educate yourself totally and look in places you wouldn't normally look. I tend to find my way around cities by walking but you can't do that in LA. I still don't like driving much out here. I shop less than I've ever done because I can't face getting into my car."

Even so, it's been an amazing year for Jensen. She may not have mustered up enough courage to negotiate the chaos of the LA freeways yet ("Hummers swerving in front of you all the time, it's crazy") but Ugly Betty has become a hit across the globe and in January she married her boyfriend of eight years, actor Terry Beesley, in a low-key ceremony in Big Sur, California. Then there's the upcoming Extras Christmas Special: an 80-minute Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant extravaganza.

"Yes, I've had a great year," agrees Jensen, tucking into her salmon. "It's been much better than last year because that was like landing on another planet. Ugly Betty is great and I enjoy going to work now because we all know each other. They're a great bunch of people that all get on very well – we respect each other's space but we're quite delighted when we meet at awards shows and things like that."

The producers of Ugly Betty, which airs on ABC, let her have two weeks off in August to film the Christmas Extras, which will be shown in America on the rival HBO channel.

"That's what you get when you work with the gods of comedy," she smiles. "They welcomed me here with open arms because of that. I was very lucky – Extras has opened a lot of doors for me and it was lovely to work with Ricky and Stephen again. It's one of those things where you can't pinpoint the chemistry. It's not like we go out drinking together or are always on the phone, but it just works."

The Christmas show, as ever, focuses on the friendship between Andy and Maggie (Gervais and Jensen) but considering it's a festive special there's not much seasonal cheer.

"I think there's one scene with a Christmas tree, a ding dong merrily on high and a bit of tinsel, and that's the nod to Christmas," she says. Extras is noted for its starry cameos; this time she got to meet George Michael and Clive Owen, who she says were both lovely, before adding: "But everyone who comes on Extras is lovely. I think it's because no matter who they are, or how famous they are, everyone has such a high regard for Ricky and Stephen. Everything they write is on the edge but it's honest and people appreciate that."

Some famous faces stick in her mind longer than others, though – she was starstruck by Kate Winslet's beauty. "I wanted to tell her to pretend I wasn't there so I could just sit and stare at her face. I was dressed up as Maggie at the time so I could probably have got away with it!"

When Victoria Beckham turned up on the Ugly Betty set earlier this year to film an appearance, Jensen found herself in make-up one morning sitting next to Posh Spice.

"She was really lovely," she recalls. "You only ever see her pouting in magazines and not smiling, so to see her not doing that was like seeing a doll come to life. She was three-dimensional and really funny. She could quite easily have turned up with her own people because a lot of what she is about is image and style, but she did none of that."

When I ask Jensen if she's become more showbiz since arriving in LA she bursts out laughing again and shows me her fingernails. "Does that look showbiz to you?" she asks, as I study the ingrained dirt. "I was out walking my dog Barney in the canyon this morning, and I was throwing the ball for him. I actually took a nailbrush to them, desperately scrubbing before I came out to meet you in case you noticed, but I just gave up."

She then whips out her iPhone and shows me some pictures of the infamous Barney – he's absolutely enormous. "He's just like Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia. Look, his head is bigger than mine!" For the record, Barney is part Alaskan malamute, part Siberian husky and part German shepherd. In other words, like his owner, he's very un-LA.

"Have you noticed that the cars are enormous but the dogs are tiny?" she says. "It's such a city of extremes."

With lunch eaten, the waitress brings us our bill. "Let's get some tea," says Jensen. "She might chuck us out otherwise."

We order something herbal and strangely pale green and get on to the upcoming Christmas break. As soon as Ugly Betty wraps filming, she'll be heading back to Aberdeen, where she has family, for the festivities.

"I'll be spending time with my mum, Margaret, and the family," she says. "I've not been back for a wee while so it'll be nice to see a bit of snow, and eat and freeze."

What does she miss most about home? "Being understood. And my friends, because I don't see them often – although they're always on the end of the phone. The eight-hour time difference can be annoying, though – they're ready to sit down for a chat of an evening with a glass of wine, while I'm here going, 'It's only ten o'clock in the morning, I have things to do!'

"I also miss the architecture of London, the greenness of Scotland and the seasons. Where are the brown leaves on the trees in autumn?

"And I miss the culture. You can find it here but you have to look really hard."

She and Beesley, who both spent years treading the boards, were delighted a couple of months ago to discover that the National Theatre of Scotland was doing a short run of Black Watch, directed by John Tiffany, in Hollywood.

"I worked with John at the Traverse Theatre years ago," she says. "But what was great over here was hearing all those broad Scottish accents, swearing. It was all 'A*** off you pair of f***ing fannies!' We absolutely loved it."

It's fair to say that she and Beesley are a team. "We'd known each other for a long time, so we knew what we were getting into," she says. "It's not really changed anything. What was weird was being out here as there was so much to take in. We're just beginning to get settled into the new house now and Terry's taking control of that. Because of the visa situation he can't work here, but he's writing and I'm lucky in that he's been so supportive of me. He's been brilliant."

Any plans to start a family? "Well if it happens, it happens but if it doesn't, it wasn't meant to be," she says.

In the meantime, the newlyweds spend their free time seeking out well-hidden restaurants, horse- riding and camping in the mountains.

"It's hard to say what I do with my spare time but I hardly ever sit still," she says. "I tell you what, this is how 'Hollywood' me and Terry are – we'll stop in on a Friday night and settle down to watch KTLA, which is the local TV channel, because they show Keeping Up Appearances, followed by As Time Goes By and then Are You Being Served?

"If you're lucky you'll get an episode of Good Neighbours, which is The Good Life. It's a little bit of home and that telly got me through the first two months here. To be honest, though, I can't understand how it works with all the hundreds of channels – I never know when anything is on."

And like every other ex-pat out here, she's constantly on the lookout for homegrown goodies. "There was huge excitement the other week when someone came into work and told us there was a shop in the valley selling Walkers prawn cocktail crisps. It was hilarious."

Regardless of the scarcity of familiar comfort food, Jensen is very happy with her decision to move to the States. When the American Writers' Guild strike is resolved, the new Ugly Betty episodes will see her character Christina becoming more prominent. And who knows, there might even be some film offers on the table in the New Year.

"I suppose I didn't want to get to a certain age thinking, 'I should have given Hollywood a bash.' My intention is always fully to move back to Britain. You never know what's going to happen but ultimately I see myself living back there."

In the meantime, she's making the most of her golden opportunity. "You have to embrace this town but I like to mix things up a bit. I'll turn to someone and say, 'I'm feeling a wee bit wabbit, I might go for a kip,' just to see the expression on their faces as they try to work out what I'm saying.

"Every day I have a little analyse about how different things are here. It's very competitive and I used to worry about getting sacked. Now I think, there's absolutely nothing I can do about it, that's just the way it is, so I may as well enjoy it.

"But I do like the warm weather and the cost of living is definitely cheaper. I'm Scottish, so I like that a lot."

And with that, the bill is finally paid and Jensen is soon striding purposefully up the hill back to Beesley and Barney, and repeats of vintage British sitcoms.

Life is looking pretty good for the girl from Dumfriesshire ...

• The Extras Christmas Special is on Thursday, 27 December, on BBC1 at 9pm.