Judy Greer
About
Biography
Filmography
Notes
"Being a character actor, you do get the goofy roles, but a lot of times they're really underwritten and you're expected to breathe life into them," she says. "People are like, 'Well you're just so funny. if anyone can do something with this, it's you, Judy!'"---Greer to EW, March 4, 2005.
Biography
Playing lanky, clumsy and unforgettable characters who often stole scene after scene from her A-list co-stars, Judy Greer turned attractive awkwardness into an art form. The minute the actress stepped foot on camera, she exuded a natural comedic flair in films such as "What Women Want" (2000) with Mel Gibson, "The Wedding Planner" (2001) with Jennifer Lopez, and "13 Going on 30" (2004) with Jennifer Garner. Greer also thrived on the small screen with hit shows like "Arrested Development" (Fox, 2003-06) and "Californication" (Showtime, 2007-14). She widened her horizons with the supernatural thriller "The Village" (2004) and Wes Craven's horror flick "Cursed" (2005), before returning to more comedic roles in "American Dreamz" (2006) and "The Amateurs" (2006). By the time she joined the cast of animated hit "Archer" (FX 2009- ), co-starred opposite George Clooney in "The Descendants" (2011) and starred in cult favorite sitcom "Married" (FX 2014-15), Greer was firmly established as a top character actress capable of playing in a variety of genres in film and on television. She added a key big screen role to her career when she played the resourceful daughter of Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode in "Halloween" (2018).
Born Judith Therese Evans on July 20, 1975 in Livonia, MI, Greer was raised the daughter of a mechanical engineer and a hospital administrator. She attended Winston Churchill High School, where she later admitted that her social status went from not being noticed to not caring at all. The self-proclaimed former ugly duckling trained for almost 10 years in Russian ballet before entering the prestigious theater program at DePaul University, where she graduated in 1997. Just three days after graduation, she landed a small part in the romantic comedy "Kissing a Fool" (1998) with Jason Lee and David Schwimmer. The one-time telemarketer and oyster shucker flew to Los Angeles for the movie premiere and ended up staying. Greer next joined the cast of "Jawbreaker" (1999), a dark comedy that focused on a popular clique of girls who accidentally kill their best friend. That same year, Greer found herself locking lips with George Clooney in the opening scene of "Three Kings," and followed with notable turns in romantic comedies "What Women Want" (2000) and "The Wedding Planner" (2001).
Even though she had landed only supporting roles up until this time, Greer caught the eye of producers and managed to gain a foothold on everyone's list for essaying unexpectedly scene-stealing characters. She next played the waitress who becomes the object of Charlie Kaufman's obsession in the Academy Award-winning film "Adaptation" (2002), and made the successful transition to the small screen when she joined the cast of "Arrested Development" (Fox, 2003-06) in the recurring role of secretary Kitty Sanchez. After playing the backstabbing best friend of Jennifer Gardner in "13 Going on 30" (2004), she appeared on other series like "Love and Money" (CBS, 1999), "CSI: Miami" (2002-2012), "Two and a Half Men" (CBS, 2003-2014) and "Californication" (Showtime, 2007-2014). Greer also earned wide praise for her hilarious portrayal of a circus performer in a 2006 episode of "My Name Is Earl" (NBC, 2005-09), which helped open the doors to more opportunities in a wider array of genres.
Throughout her career, Greer also stretched her dramatic muscles by scoring parts in non-comedic films and independent projects. She starred opposite Sigourney Weaver, Joaquin Phoenix and Adrien Brody in M. Night Shyamalan's supernatural thriller "The Village" (2004) before appearing in Wes Craven's werewolf horror flick "Cursed" (2005). That same year, Greer acted in "Elizabethtown" as Orlando Bloom's sister and Susan Sarandon's daughter in writer-director Cameron Crowe's romantic comedy-drama. Following turns in Paul Weitz's political satire "American Dreamz" (2006) and the indie comedy "The Amateurs" (2006), Greer starred on the short-lived sitcom "Miss Guided" (ABC, 2008), which lasted a scant seven episodes before being cancelled. Her next series, the animated spy comedy "Archer" (FX 2009- ), on which she played independently wealthy secretary Cheryl Tunt, was far more critically and commercially successful. She starred alongside Katherine Heigl and James Marsden in the romantic comedy "27 Dresses" (2008), played a friend and employee to Jennifer Aniston in "Love Happens" (2009), and performed in the live-action film "Marmaduke" (2010).
On the small screen, she joined Ashton Kutcher in a recurring role as his wife on "Two and a Half Men" (CBS, 2003-2014) when the actor replaced an outgoing Charlie Sheen. After co-starring opposite George Clooney in Alexander Payne's acclaimed comedy-drama "The Descendants" (2011), Greer next co-starred in the Duplass brothers comedy-drama "Jeff, Who Lives At Home" (2011) and the Gerard Butler romantic comedy "Playing For Keeps" (2012). Returning to darker roles, Greer co-starred in Kimberley Peirce's remake of the horror classic "Carrie" (2013), psychological thriller "Jamie Marks Is Dead" (2014), and action sequel "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" (2014). Alongside her continuing work on "Archer," Greer starred in the dark sitcom "Married" (FX 2014-15) opposite Nat Faxon, co-writer of "The Descendants." Along with co-starring in Jason Reitman's "Men, Women & Children" (2014) and Paul Weitz's "Grandma" (2015), Greer appeared in several big-budget summer films in 2015, including Brad Bird's fantasy "Tomorrowland" (2015), the Marvel film "Ant-Man" (2015) and the franchise reboot "Jurassic World" (2015). She also returned to her indie roots with the comedy-drama "Ordinary World" (2016), starring Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, Brett Gelman's Lemon" (2017), and "Wilson" (2017), based on the Daniel Clowes graphic novel, After making her directorial debut with "A Happening of Monumental Proportions" (2017), Greer took on a motion capture role in the hit sequel "War for the Planet of the Apes" (2017) and starred in the indie romance "Our Souls at Night" (2017), teen comedy "Adventures in Public School" (2017) and indie comedy "Pottersville" (2017). Veering back toward the mainstream, Greer appeared in Clint Eastwood's docudrama "The 15:17 to Paris" (2018), reprised her role in "Ant-Man and the Wasp" (2018) and played the daughter of Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode in David Gordon Green's "Halloween" (2018), During this period, she also co-starred in the Jim Carrey comedy-drama "Kidding" (HBO 2018- ) and co-starred in indie drama "Measure of a Man" (2018).
Filmography
Director (Feature Film)
Cast (Feature Film)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1998
Cast opposite David Schwimmer in the romantic comedy "Kissing a Fool"
1998
Made her film debut in the low-budget horror movie "Stricken"
1999
Appeared with Rose McGowan in "Jawbreaker"
1999
Had a small role as a reporter opposite George Clooney in "Three Kings"
2000
Appeared opposite Garry Shandling and John Goodman in Mike Nichols' "What Planet Are You From?"
2001
Cast as Jennifer Lopez's assistant in the romantic comedy "The Wedding Planner"
2002
Cast as a waitress in the Charlie Kaufman/Spike Jonez comedy "Adaptation"
2003
Appeared in writer/director Adam Goldberg's psychological drama "I Love Your Work"
2003
Had a recurring role as Kitty Sanchez, George Bluth Sr.'s fiercely loyal assistant, on Fox's "Arrested Development"
2004
Co-starred in writer/director M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village" opposite Joaquin Phoenix
2004
Starred opposite Jennifer Garner in the comedy "13 Going on 30"
2005
Co-starred with Orlando Bloom and Susan Sarandon in writer/director Cameron Crowe's "Elizabethtown"
2005
Starred in Wes Craven's werewolf thriller "Cursed"
2006
Co-starred in "The Amateurs," an independent comedy about a sleepy town that comes together to film a porno
2006
Cast in Paul Weitz's political satire "American Dreamz"
2007
Cast in the network satire "The TV Set," directed by Jake Kasdan and starring Sigourney Weaver
2008
Starred in the short-lived ABC sitcom "Miss Guided"
2009
Played Jennifer Aniston's employee and friend in the romantic drama "Love Happens"
2009
Voiced sociopathic secretary Cheryl Tunt on FX's "Archer"
2010
Acted in the live-action film based on the comic strip "Marmaduke"
2010
Co-starred with Patrick Wilson in the comedy "Barry Munday"
2011
Cast as the wife of Ashton Kutcher's character Walden Schmidt on CBS' "Two and a Half Men"
2011
Cast opposite George Clooney in Alexander Payne's "The Descendants"
2012
Co-starred in "Jeff, Who Lives at Home" opposite Jason Segel and Ed Helms
2012
Cast opposite Gerard Butler and Jessica Biel in romantic comedy "Playing for Keeps"
2013
Cast as teacher Miss Desjardin in the remake of Stephen King's "Carrie"
2014
Co-starred in indie horror film "Jamie Marks Is Dead"
2014
Co-starred in action sequel "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"
2014
Co-starred in Jason Reitman's ensemble comedy-drama "Men, Women and Children"
2014
Starred opposite Nat Faxon in FX comedy "Married"
2015
Landed a supporting role in Colin Trevorrow's smash hit "Jurassic World"
2015
Appeared in Brad Bird's "Tomorrowland" as the mother of Britt Robertson's Casey
2015
Co-starred as Maggie, the title character's ex-wife, in the Marvel hit "Ant-Man"
2015
Co-starred opposite Lily Tomlin in Paul Weitz's comedy-drama "Grandma"
2016
Starred in the Katie Holmes' directorial debut, "All We Had"
2016
Had a supporting role in the music comedy "Geezer"
2017
Played Cornelia in Matt Reeves' "War for the Planet of the Apes"
2018
Joined the cast of Michel Gondry's Showtime series "Kidding"
2018
Played Karen Strode in David Gordon Green's "Halloween"
Bibliography
Notes
"Being a character actor, you do get the goofy roles, but a lot of times they're really underwritten and you're expected to breathe life into them," she says. "People are like, 'Well you're just so funny. if anyone can do something with this, it's you, Judy!'"---Greer to EW, March 4, 2005.
