An American actress and model, intelligent and beautiful with a disarming smile, Jennifer Beals is ine of the most relatable and talented actresses of her time. She launched to stardom with the lead role in the 1983 hit Flashdance. Jennifer also starred on Showtime's The L Word. Beals contines to work in television and films and she has appeared in more than 50 films and TV shows.
Background
Ethnicity:
Jennifer's mother is of Irish descent , while her father was African-American.
Jennifer Sue Beals was born in Chicago on December 19, 1963 as the second child of Jeanne Anderson and Alfred Beals. Her mother, an Irish-Catholic retired elementary schoolteacher, still lives in Chicago. Her African-American father owned a grocery store on the South Side of Chicago where she spent the first decade of her childhood. Her older brother Gregory, born in 1958, became a journalist after graduating from Yale and works for United Nations. Her younger brother Bobby, was born in 1964.
Education
In order to earn some extra money to pay for college tuition, Jennifer worked selling ice cream at Baskin-Robbins and as a babysitter of Steve Edwards’ kids (“Good Day L.A.”), who was a friend of the family. At the age of 16, wanting to earn more money than her previous jobs would pay, Jennifer began modeling and she appeared in local print ads and began working with the famous Chicago photographer Victor Skrebneski. She pose for store catalogs and magazine fashion spreads and during summer breaks, she did modeling stints in New York and Paris for Town and Country, French Vogue and Les Jardin Des Modes. Jennifer made her debut in film while still in high school in 1980 as an extra in a movie called “My Bodyguard”, a comedy drama starring Matt Dillon, Adam Baldwin and Joan Cusak. Jennifer's name was not among the credits.
The director, Tony Bill, encouraged Jennifer to pursue acting as a career and she was also influenced by two schoolfriends from the Francis W. Parker School, Daryl Hannah and her sister Page.
With a life-long desire for acting, Beals first appeared in small high school plays. She became interested in pursuing a career in acting after performing in her high school's production of Fiddler on the Roof, and studied at the Goodman Theater in Chicago before attending Yale University.
When she was about to start her first year in college, she auditioned for the role of Alex Owens in "Flashdance”. During her second year at Yale, Flashdance was released and turned into a pop culture phenomenon. The film would not just give her instant fame but also made her a fashion icon. Flashdance earned Jennifer a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.
As soon as filming was finished, she returned to Yale in order to pursue her B.A. in American Literature.
During her summer breaks she filmed "Cinderella" (1985) and “The Bride” (1985) and she also turned down many other roles, a fact that almost made her agents lose their minds.
She also continued modelling and promoted a $3 million ad campaign for French designers Marithé and François Girbaud and Japanese cosmetics Shiseido.
Besides being a very talented actress, she is also a great photographer. She became interested in photography in high school (her boyfriend had a darkroom) and studied photography at Yale. During her time in college, Jennifer became friends with actress Jodie Foster, also a student at Yale, and she was one of the first people to buy some of her photos.
In 1987, she graduated from Yale with honors. However, a college degree was not enough, Jennifer also studied acting with Ed Kovens at The Professional Workshop in New York City.
Career
After graduating from Yale in 1987, Jennifer resumed her acting career, starring in some low budget indie movies, working in Europe and in some critically acclaimed movies like “In the Soup” (1992), “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle” (1994), “The Twilight of the Golds” (1996) and “Roger Dodger” (2002) just to name a few.
One of her biggest film roles came in 1995 with the thriller Devil In A Blue Dress, set in 1948 starring Denzel Washington and based on the novel written by Walter Mosley (a favourite author of Jennifer). Jennifer fought really hard to get this part, she really wanted to play the role of the femme fatale Daphne Monet and she gained 20 pounds in order to fill the blue dress.
In 2003, Jennifer was cast in the role of Bette Porter on the Showtime’s hit drama series “The L Word”, a show that was set around a group of lesbian women in West Hollywood. The series premiered on January 18, 2004 and Jennifer's touching portrayal of Bette Porter and the magic chemistry with her co-star Laurel Holloman, who played her partner Tina Kennard, turned her into a gay icon and a passionate spokesperson for LGBT rights and made her career soared once again.
When "The L Word” ended in 2009 after six successful seasons, Jennifer became a recurring guest star in "Lie to Me”, where she played Zoë Landau, the ex-wife of Dr. Cal Lightman (Tim Roth). She also appeared in “Joueuse” (2009), “The Book of Eli” (2010) and “A Night for Dying Tigers” (2010) before Shawn Ryan (“The Shield”, “Lie to Me - Season 1") lured her away from “Lie to Me” in order to play the leading role of Teresa Colvin, the first female superintendent of the Chicago Police Force in his new show called “The Chicago Code”. Even though the show received nothing but positive reviews, it was not renewed by FOX for a second season. Jennifer contines to work in television and films and she has appeared in more than 50 films and TV shows.
On 9/11 2001 Jennifer was in New York and she took her camera downtown to make her own record of that fateful day. Later in 2001, she donated some of her pictures to the Art Heals Benefit for Sept 11th Fund where all money raised from the event, with artwork created by celebrities, went to the aid of victims of the attacks in New York and Washington.
She always took her camera with her. This is how the "L Word Book”, a photographic journal of the tv show "The L Word", came into fruition. The book gave a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the groundbreaking TV show and contained over 400 photos, cast commentary, bits of scripts, callsheets, production memos and more. All proceeds of this book and prints went to a few selected charities, "Matthew Shepard Foundation", "Pablove Foundation" and Mia Kirshner’s "I Live Here Projects".