Please Rewind Talent Wall

Judy Greer

Judy Greer has built a career out of making every kind of screen time count. Equally comfortable with dry comedy, emotional drama, horror and voice work, she brings a grounded, slightly off-center energy that can sharpen a joke or reveal the tension underneath it. Born in Detroit on July 20, 1975, Greer studied at DePaul University’s Theatre School before beginning her film career in the late 1990s. Her first major role came as Fern Mayo in the black comedy Jawbreaker, establishing an ability to find both humor and vulnerability in characters standing just outside the center of the frame. Roles in What Women Want, The Wedding Planner and 13 Going on 30 followed, while her recurring turn as Kitty Sanchez in Arrested Development gave her a particularly unruly comic showcase. Greer’s range has always extended beyond comedy. In The Descendants, her brief but emotionally loaded performance as a woman confronting a devastating betrayal earned strong reviews, along with Screen Actors Guild ensemble and Satellite Award nominations. She has also worked across major franchises, appearing in Jurassic World, Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp, while performing the motion-capture role of Cornelia in two Planet of the Apes films. For Please Rewind readers, Greer is Karen Nelson in Halloween and Halloween Kills. As Laurie Strode’s daughter, Karen initially offers a warmer counterweight to Laurie’s hardened vigilance in Halloween. Greer gradually lets the character’s own survival instincts come into focus, then returns in Halloween Kills as Karen proves fully capable of carrying the Strode family resolve into another brutal confrontation with Michael Myers. Her television and voice work has been just as varied, from Cheryl Tunt in Archer to leading roles in Married and Reboot. Greer has also moved behind the camera, directing the short Quiet Time and making her feature directorial debut with A Happening of Monumental Proportions. It is a fitting expansion for a performer whose career has long depended on understanding exactly what a scene needs—and delivering it without fuss.