Please Rewind Talent Wall

Amy Stoch

Amy Stoch has built a screen career that moves comfortably between soap-opera intrigue, television drama and time-travelling comedy. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, she wanted to act from an early age. Her professional break came through Star Search, where she reached the semifinals in the spokesmodel category and caught the attention of judge Sue Cameron, who offered to represent her. Stoch soon found substantial television roles. In 1986, she joined Days of Our Lives as Britta Englund, a former KGB agent drawn into a love triangle with Patch Johnson and Bo Brady. The following year, she appeared in a recurring Dallas storyline as Lisa Alden, the biological aunt of Christopher Ewing. She also played Fawn Hall in the miniseries Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North. For movie audiences, Stoch is best known as Missy, the young stepmother whose place in the Preston family becomes one of the Bill & Ted series’ longest-running jokes. She first played the role in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, returned for Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey and came back decades later in Bill & Ted Face the Music. It is a supporting part built around comic awkwardness, and Stoch’s straight-faced delivery helps the joke land without overwhelming the scene. Her television work also includes four Gunsmoke movies, in which she played Beth, the daughter of Marshal Matt Dillon. Across the years, she made guest appearances on series including Matlock, The Fall Guy, Hardcastle and McCormick, Dynasty, Knots Landing and High Incident. Alongside acting, Stoch has pursued an extensive academic path in theatre. She earned a bachelor of arts in theatre from Ashland University, a master’s degree from California State University, Northridge, and a PhD in theatre history, theory and criticism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2012. Her work as both an actor and educator gives her career an unusual shape: part familiar screen presence, part committed theatre scholar.