Judy Greer

Judith Therese Evans (born July 20, 1975), known professionally as Judy Greer, is an American actress.

She is primarily known as a character actress who has appeared in a wide variety of films.

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.

Greer made her film debut in the horror film Stricken (1998), as 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 rose to prominence for her supporting roles in the films Jawbreaker (1999), What Women Want (2000), 13 Going on 30 (2004), Elizabethtown (2005), 27 Dresses (2008), and Love & Other Drugs (2010).

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).

Greer followed this with small parts in the romantic comedy films, What Women Want (2000) and The Wedding Planner (2001).

Greer expanded into multiple genres with roles in films, such as Adaptation (2002), The Village (2004), The Descendants (2011), Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011), Carrie (2013), Men, Women & Children (2014), Grandma (2015), Lemon (2017), Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019), Uncle Frank (2020), and Hollywood Stargirl (2022).

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.

She also had a supporting role in Adaptation (2002).

Greer had a recurring role on the Fox comedy series Arrested Development (2003–2005, 2013, 2018), playing Kitty Sanchez in ten episodes total and appearing in each of the series' three original seasons.

In 2004, Greer co-starred in the romantic comedy 13 Going on 30, starring Jennifer Garner as a girl who wakes up one morning as a 30-year-old woman.

Greer played Lucy, an untrustworthy fellow editor of Garner's at a fashion magazine where both work.

The film was a commercial success, grossing $96.5 million worldwide, and received positive reviews from critics.

Greer had a supporting role in M. Night Shyamalan's thriller film The Village, about a village whose population lives in fear of creatures inhabiting the woods beyond it.

Despite mixed reviews, the film was a success at the box office, grossing $256.7 million worldwide.

Greer then played another supporting role in Jenna Fischer's directorial debut, the comedy LolliLove, which premiered at the St. Louis International Film Festival to positive reviews from critics, though it was ultimately released straight-to-DVD.

In 2005, Greer first played a female werewolf in Wes Craven's horror film Cursed, starring Christina Ricci and Jesse Eisenberg.

The film was a failure at the box office and was widely panned by critics, with Craven later expressing disappointment in the film.

Following an appearance in Paul Weitz's comedy American Dreamz, Greer starred in the comedy-drama The TV Set (both 2006), as a personal manager to the scriptwriter (David Duchovny) of a television series.

The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival to generally positive reviews from critics.

Dana Stevens of Slate noted that "[...] Judy Greer, an Anne Heche lookalike with Lisa Kudrow's comic timing, nearly steals the movie as Mike's desperately chirpy manager."

She also appeared in the comedy series The Big Bang Theory (2007–2019), Arrested Development (2003–2006, 2013–2019), Two and a Half Men (2003–2015), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2007–2011), Kidding (2018–2020), Let's Go Luna! (2018-2022) and Reboot (2022).

Greer was born in Detroit, Michigan.

Her mother, Mollie Ann (née Greer), is a hospital administrator, and her father, Rich Evans, is a mechanical engineer.

Her mother was once a nun, who had left the convent after eight years, being "kicked out" for wild behavior, including owning a red bathing suit.

Greer was raised Roman Catholic and grew up in Redford Township and Livonia.

On television, Greer is best known for her starring voice role as Cheryl Tunt in the FXX animated comedy series Archer (2009–present) and as Lina Bowman in the FX sitcom Married (2014–2015).

In a 2009 interview, she said that she is most recognized for this role.

Greer then starred in the comedy-drama The Great New Wonderful, which depicts the lives of several New Yorkers one year after the September 11th attacks.

In her character's vignette, Greer played a woman struggling to keep her marriage together.

The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival to mostly positive reviews.

Ty Burr of the Boston Globe called the film "an actor's playpen", and remarked that "Greer has been stuck so long in goofball supporting roles that she tears into this part – a smart, loving mother frightened of her own son – as if it were prime rib."

Following an appearance in the drama In Memory of My Father, Greer featured in Cameron Crowe's tragic-romantic comedy Elizabethtown, starring Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, Alec Baldwin and Susan Sarandon.

The film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and garnered negative reviews from critics.

She appeared in numerous blockbusters, such as Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) and its sequel War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), Jurassic World (2015), Halloween (2018) and its sequel Halloween Kills (2021), and the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Ant-Man (2015), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023).

She made her directorial debut with the comedy-drama film A Happening of Monumental Proportions (2017).