Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals (born December 19, 1963) is an American actress and a former teen model. She is known for her roles as Alexandra "Alex" Owens in the 1983 film Flashdance, and as Bette Porter on the Showtime drama series The L Word. She earned an NAACP Image Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination for the former. She has appeared in more than 50 films. Beals was born on the South Side of Chicago, the daughter of Jeanne (née Anderson), an elementary school teacher, and Alfred Beals, who owned grocery stores. She is multiracial; her father was African American, and her mother is Irish American. She has two brothers, Bobby and Gregory.Her father died when Beals was nine years old, and her mother married Edward Cohen in 1981. Beals has said her biracial heritage had some effect on her, as she "always lived sort of on the outside", with an idea "of being the other in society". She got her first job at age 13 at an ice cream store, using her height at the time (she is now nearly 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)), to convince her boss she was 16. Beals was inspired to become an actress by two events: doing a high school production of Fiddler on the Roof and seeing Balm in Gilead with Joan Allen while volunteer-ushering at the Steppenwolf Theatre. Beals graduated from the progressive Francis W. Parker School. She also was chosen to attend the elite Goodman Theatre Young People's Drama Workshop. Beals attended Yale University, receiving a B.A. in American literature in 1987; she deferred a term so she could film Flashdance. While at Yale, Beals was a resident of Morse College. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jennifer Beals, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
99 acting credits
Acting · 99
Law & Order
1990
The Daily Show
1996
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
2014
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
2009
Castle
2009
The Kelly Clarkson Show
2019
Frasier
1993
Golden Globe Awards
1944
The View
1997
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
2005
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
2003
Law & Order: Organized Crime
2021
Lie to Me
2009
The Outer Limits
1995
The L Word
2004
After
2019
Taken
2017
Motive
2013
Off Camera with Sam Jones
2014
The Book of Boba Fett
2021
Faerie Tale Theatre
1982
The Night Shift
2014
Best Week Ever
2004
The Hunger
1997
The L Word: Generation Q
2019
Where Are They Now?
1999
The Book of Eli
2010
Swamp Thing
2019
Seitenblicke
1987
The Grudge 2
2006
The Chicago Code
2011
Flashdance
1983
Four Rooms
1995
Runaway Jury
2003
Nothing Sacred
1997
A Wife's Nightmare
2014
Luckiest Girl Alive
2022
Catch That Kid
2004
Proof
2015
Devil in a Blue Dress
1995
Before I Fall
2017
2000 Malibu Road
1992
Manhattan Night
2016
E! True Hollywood Story
1996
Vampire's Kiss
1989
The Prophecy II
1998
The Thief and the Cobbler
1993
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle
1994
The Last Days of Disco
1998
My Bodyguard
1980
In the Soup
1992
The Bride
1985
Dear Diary
1993
The White Orchid
2018
Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying
1999
The Search for One-eye Jimmy
1994
13 Moons
2002
Roger Dodger
2002
Full Out
2015
Hollywood: No Sex, Please!
2018
Feast of All Saints
2001
Militia
2000
Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute
1988
The Anniversary Party
2001
Indecency
1992
Break a Leg
2005
That's Dancing!
1985
The Night Before the Night Before Christmas
2010
Split Decisions
1988
Blood and Concrete
1991
Sons
1990
The Twilight of the Golds
1996
A Fuller Life
2013
Let It Be Me
1995
Dr. M
1990
The Gamble
1988
Troubled Waters
2006
Queen to Play
2009
The Spree
1998
Wishful Thinking
1999
Dead on Sight
1994
Cinderella
1985
Body and Soul
2000
A House Divided
2000
They Shoot Divas, Don't They?
2002
Night Owl
1993
Cinemanovels
2013
Without Malice
2000
My Name Is Sarah
2007
The Big Pardon 2
1992
Hello Out There
2025
Joy Will Prevail
—
Terror Stalks the Class Reunion
1992
Starz Inside: Fashion in Film
2008
Desolation Sound
2005
Out of Line
2001
The Madonna and the Dragon
1990
A Night for Dying Tigers
2010
Something More
2000