Jennifer Grey is an American actress born on March 26, 1960. She started her acting career in the movie Reckless in 1984 but hit the big time with Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in 1986. You might know her best from Dirty Dancing in 1987, where she played Frances Baby Houseman, a role that got her nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
She’s been in a bunch of other movies too, like Red Dawn (1984), The Cotton Club (1984), Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989), Bounce (2000), Redbelt (2008), The Wind Rises (2013), In Your Eyes (2014), Duck Duck Goose (2018), and Bittersweet Symphony (2019).
Jennifer Grey has also appeared on TV. She was in TV movies like Murder in Mississippi and Criminal Justice in 1990 and played Kelly Carter / Prudence in If the Shoe Fits in the same year. She had her show called It’s Like, You Know… from 1999 to 2001. In 2010, she won season eleven of Dancing with the Stars and from 2014 to 2017, she starred in the Amazon Prime Video comedy Red Oaks as Judy Meyers.
Besides acting on screen, Grey has also lent her voice to projects like the movie Duck Duck Goose in 2018 and the animated TV series Phineas and Ferb from 2008 to 2014.
| Full Name | Jennifer Grey |
| Date of Birth | March 26, 1960 |
| Place of Birth | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress, Dancer, Author |
| Height | 5 ft 3 in (1.6 m) |
| Spouse(s) | Clark Gregg (m. 2001) |
| Children | Stella Gregg |
| Net Worth | $10 Million |
Jennifer Grey’s Early life and Education
Jennifer Grey was born in New York City on March 26, 1960. Her dad Joel Grey was a famous actor and her mom Jo Wilder was an actor and singer too. Jennifer’s grandpa Mickey Katz was also a Musician and comedian. Both of Jennifer’s parents were Jewish.
She went to a fancy school in Manhattan called the Dalton School. There, she learned how to dance and act. She even met her best friend, Tracy Pollan, at school. After finishing in 1978, she went to the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in Manhattan to get better at acting. While she waited for acting gigs, she worked as a waitress.
Career
Jennifer Grey’s first commercial debut was when she was just 19, in a Dr Pepper commercial. Then, she showed up in a movie called Reckless in 1984, but it was just a small part. After that, she had another small role in a big movie by Francis Ford Coppola called The Cotton Club. In the same year, she was in a war movie called Red Dawn and later in American Flyers in 1985.
But her breakout moment was in 1986 when she played Jeannie Bueller in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, acting alongside Matthew Broderick. This movie was a hit and got great reviews.
The next year she worked with Patrick Swayze again in Dirty Dancing where she played Frances “Baby” Houseman. It’s about a girl who falls for her dance instructor over the summer. The movie wasn’t expected to do well but it became a huge hit and even got a Golden Globe nomination for Grey.
Apart from these big movies, Grey also appeared in a Broadway show called The Twilight of the Golds in 1993.
Even with the success of Dirty Dancing, Grey felt like her appearance might hold her back from certain roles. So, in the early ’90s, she got two nose jobs. The second one didn’t go as planned and changed her look a lot. She said it felt like she went into the surgery famous but came out unrecognizable. It even affected her career with people not realizing who she was. There was even a funny sitcom about her nose job called It’s Like, You Know…, where she played herself.
Overall, Grey’s had a rollercoaster of a career from big movies to personal struggles with her appearance but she’s still making her mark in Hollywood.
Jennifer Grey has appeared in various TV shows and movies over the years. You might remember her from the TV movie The West Side Waltz or the TV series Friends, where she played Mindy, Rachel’s high school friend. She also had a small role in the movie Bounce with Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck.
In 2007, she was on the HBO series John from Cincinnati as Daphne. Then in 2010, she played Abbey in an episode of House.
You might have seen her on Dancing With the Stars too. She competed in season eleven and won with her partner Derek Hough.
After that, she appeared in a Lifetime movie called The Bling Ring in 2011. She even filled in as a judge on a TV show called Strictly Come Dancing.
She’s also done some voice work, like voicing Mrs. Kurokawa in the English version of Hayao Miyazaki’s film The Wind Rises.
From 2014 to 2017, she was in a TV series called Red Oaks, and in 2018, she was in a movie called Untogether.
In 2015, she presented at the Tony Awards alongside her dad.
And if you’re interested in her life story, her memoir Out of the Corner was published on May 3, 2022, by Ballantine Books.
Personal life
On August 5, 1987, Grey got badly hurt in a car crash in Northern Ireland while on vacation with Matthew Broderick, whom Jennifer Grey was dating secretly during the filming of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Broderick was driving and accidentally hit another car killing two people. He got fined for driving carelessly. Around that time Dirty Dancing made her famous but she couldn’t enjoy it because of the crash.
Grey dated several actors like Michael J. Fox, Johnny Depp, William Baldwin, and then-aide to President Clinton, George Stephanopoulos before marrying Clark Gregg in 2001. They have a daughter but separated in 2020 and finalized their divorce in 2021.
She became more connected to her Jewish roots after her daughter’s bat mitzvah. Before appearing on Dancing with the Stars in 2010, she had to check if her body was strong enough due to a neck injury from the crash. She had surgery to fix it and also had thyroid cancer, which was removed in 2009.
In 2017, she took part in the Women’s March in Los Angeles.
Net Worth
Jennifer Grey’s net worth is estimated to be $10 million as of 2024, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Jennifer Grey has made a lot of money from her work in entertainment. But what’s special about her isn’t just how rich she is. It’s the way she’s made us laugh and cry through the characters she’s played. From her funny moments in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off to her touching performance in Dirty Dancing, Jennifer Grey has touched the hearts of people all over the world.
Awards and Nominations
Back in 1988, Jennifer Grey got a nomination for a Golden Globe because of her awesome performance in “Dirty Dancing.” She also got nominated for four Best Actress Bravo Otto awards, and she won one in 1988. Plus, in 1995, she got a nomination for a CableACE Award for her role in “Fallen Angels.”
Then, in 2015, Jennifer and her buddies from “Kaze tachinu” got a nomination for a Behind the Voice Actors Award for being the best vocal team in an anime movie
