About
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...
Known for
Law & OrderSeries • 1990
CastleSeries • 2009
FrasierSeries • 1993
Law & Order: Organized CrimeSeries • 2021
Lie to MeSeries • 2009
The Outer LimitsSeries • 1995
Pulp FictionMovie • 1994
TakenSeries • 2017
The L WordSeries • 2004
MotiveSeries • 2013
The Book of Boba FettSeries • 2021
The Book of EliMovie • 2010
Faerie Tale TheatreSeries • 1982
The Night ShiftSeries • 2014
Swamp ThingSeries • 2019
The HungerSeries • 1997
The L Word: Generation QSeries • 2019
AfterMovie • 2019
NCIS: New YorkSeries • 2026
FlashdanceMovie • 1983
Four RoomsMovie • 1995
Runaway JuryMovie • 2003
Before I FallMovie • 2017
The Chicago CodeSeries • 2011