Background
Jill Marie Schoelen was born in Burbank, California. Schoelen grew up Burbank, and in 1974 moved to Encino, California.
Jill Marie Schoelen was born in Burbank, California. Schoelen grew up Burbank, and in 1974 moved to Encino, California.
She is the only daughter and one of four children of Paul and Dorothy Schoelen. Dorothy Schoelen was a prominent women's fashion designer from the 1980s and 1990s. She began singing at the age of 7 and taught herself to read music and play the guitar by the age of 10.
Her career began when at 15 years old, a talent agent heard her sing and play guitar.
Shortly thereafter, Schoelen began booking commercials for American and international markets. Schoelen’s theatrical debut was in the 1981 television pilot The Best of Times, which starred Crispin Glover and Nicolas Cage.
Schoelen went on to star in such movies as District of Columbia Cab (1983), Chiller (1985), That Was Then. This Is Now (1985), Babes in Toyland (1986), The Stepfather (1987), Billionaire Boys Club (television miniseries 1987), Cutting Class (1989), The Phantom of the Opera: The Motion Picture (1989), Popcorn (1991), When a Stranger Calls Back (1993), and There Goes My Baby (1994).
Schoelen guest starred on TJ Hooker, Little House on the Prairie, Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder Sara, Hell Town, and Aaron Spelling’s The Heights (1992).
Schoelen starred in the musical Pepper Street (1984–1989), playing the lead role of Spirit. In 1988, Sean Penn cast her in a dramatic play he wrote and directed, The Kindness of Women. Schoelen and Penn worked together again on stage, starring opposite each other in David Rabe’s Hurlyburly (1988/1989), in a production that David Rabe also directed.