Jennifer Beals

Jennifer Beals born December 19 1963 height 5 8½ 174 m 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 GregoryHer 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 175 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 volunteerushering at the Steppenwolf Theatre Beals graduated from the progressive Francis W Parker School She also was chosen to attend the elite Goodman Theatre Young Peoples Drama Workshop Beals attended Yale University receiving a BA 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 CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia