Jennifer Beals (born December 19, 1963) is an American actress and a former teen model. She is known for her roles as Alexandra "Alex" Owens in the 1983 film Flashdance, and as Bette Porter on the Showtime drama series The L Word. She earned an NAACP Image Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination for the former. She has appeared in more than 50 films. Beals was born on the South Side of Chicago, the daughter of Jeanne (nÊe Anderson), an elementary school teacher, and Alfred Beals, who owned grocery stores. She is multiracial; her father was African American, and her mother is Irish American. She has two brothers, Bobby and Gregory.Her father died when Beals was nine years old, and her mother married Edward Cohen in 1981. Beals has said her biracial heritage had some effect on her, as she "always lived sort of on the outside", with an idea "of being the other in society". She got her first job at age 13 at an ice cream store, using her height at the time (she is now nearly 5 ft 9 in ...
Flashdance
1983
After
2019
The Book of Eli
2010
Luckiest Girl Alive
2022
The Last Days of Disco
1998
Terror Stalks the Class Reunion
1992
Four Rooms
1995
Queen to Play
2009
Indecency
1992
A Night for Dying Tigers
2010
The Bride
1985
Before I Fall
2017
My Bodyguard
1980
Runaway Jury
2003
Hollywood: No Sex, Please!
2018
Dr. M
1990
The Grudge 2
2006
A Wife's Nightmare
2014
Cinderella
1985
The Spree
1998
Split Decisions
1988
Militia
2000
Devil in a Blue Dress
1995
Vampire's Kiss
1989
The Thief and the Cobbler
1993
A Fuller Life
2013
The Prophecy II
1998
Manhattan Night
2016
Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying
1999
Full Out
2015
In the Soup
1992
Catch That Kid
2004
The Anniversary Party
2001
Faerie Tale Theatre: Cinderella
1985
Troubled Waters
2006
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle
1994
Roger Dodger
2002
The Night Before the Night Before Christmas
2010
The White Orchid
2018
Dear Diary
1993