Judy Greer

About Judy Greer

Judith Therese Evans (born July 20, 1975), known professionally as Judy Greer, is an American actress, voice actress, comedian, and author. She is primarily known as a character actress, who has appeared in supporting roles in a variety of films. She first rose to prominence in the early 2000s, appearing in the romantic comedies What Women Want (2000), 13 Going on 30 (2004), 27 Dresses (2008), and Love & Other Drugs (2010).

Greer was raised Roman Catholic (although no longer practicing), and grew up in Redford Township and Livonia. She attended Churchill High School where she was a part of the Creative and Performing Arts Program and graduated from The Theatre School at DePaul University in 1997 with a bachelor of fine arts degree. She later adopted her mother’s maiden name for her stage name, as several other actresses are named Judy or Judi Evans.

She made her film debut in the horror film Stricken (1998), in which she played a college student involved in a fatal prank. This was followed by a small role in the Chicago-filmed drama Kissing a Fool (1998). She was cast in her first major role as Fern Mayo, a nerdy teenager who uncovers her classmates’ murder of their friend, in Darren Stein’s black comedy Jawbreaker (1999). The film went on to earn a cult following. Greer followed this with small parts in the romantic comedy films What Women Want (2000) and The Wedding Planner (2001), opposite Jennifer Lopez. She was cast in a 2002 pilot for NBC alongside Stephen Colbert, Untitled Ken Finkleman Project (Imagine Entertainment), based on the Canadian show The Newsroom from Ken Finkleman. Colbert portrayed Finkleman and Greer played his sister.

In April 2008, Greer appeared as a yoga instructor in the “Get a Mac” ad series featuring John Hodgman and Justin Long. Greer starred in a CBS sitcom entitled Mad Love, which premiered in February 2011 as a midseason replacement. The show was cancelled after the first season.

In November 2011, Greer was honored with the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award at the Denver Film Festival, where two films featuring her were in the festival’s programming, including a red-carpet screening of Alexander Payne’s The Descendants and Jay and Mark Duplass’ Jeff, Who Lives at Home. She is the first actress to be honored with the award. Also in 2011, Greer began hosting an online series of workout videos called Reluctantly Healthy, adapted by Litton Entertainment in 2014 as part of their Saturday morning One Magnificent Morning block for The CW.

She played the gym teacher Miss Desjardin in the 2013 horror remake Carrie alongside Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore, and played female chimp Cornelia in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014).

In 2014, Greer made her directorial debut, with a short film for AOL, Quiet Time. She starred with Nat Faxon in the FX comedy series 'Married', which premiered in July of that year.

In 2014, she told Glamour, “I had been wanting to try and learn how to meditate, and I did research on the different types of meditation. TM seemed the easiest, and I liked that it wasn’t religious in any way.” That year she also released her first autobiographical collection of essays, titled 'I Don’t Know What You Know Me From: Confessions of a Co-Star'.

In 2015, Greer co-starred in the films Tomorrowland, Jurassic World, and Ant-Man, among others. In 2016, she debuted in the lead voice role of Beep in the Netflix children’s animated programs, Ask the StoryBots and StoryBots Super Songs. In 2017, she reprised her role as Cornelia in the film sequel War for the Planet of the Apes, and in 2018, she again played her role as Maggie Lang, in the superhero film Ant-Man and the Wasp. She then co-starred as Karen, the daughter of Laurie Strode, in the 2018 horror sequel film Halloween.

On television, Greer is best known for her recurring role in the comedy series Arrested Development (2003–2018). She also voices Cheryl Tunt in the FXX animated comedy series Archer (2009–present) and stars as Jill Piccirillo in the Showtime comedy-drama series Kidding (2018–present).