Throughout her career, actress Judy Greer has been memorable for scene-stealing performances in major feature films and television shows. Whether playing it straight as a waitress whos the object of desire for a struggling screenwriter or mugging for laughs as a flighty secretary in an absurdist sitcom, Greer has captured the attention of audiences without having landed that one defining lead role. But for Greerwhose career took off like a rocket straight out of college and has stayed in orbit ever sinceshe has had no doubt that some day her opportunity for stardom will come.
Born and raised in the Detroit area, Greer became interested in performing arts in high school and actively got involved in theater while attending DePaul University. Up until then, Greers life had been, according to her, kind of boring. The day after her graduation from DePaul she landed a role in Kissing a Fool (1998) as the cousin of a book editor (Mili Avital) trapped between a soft-hearted womanizer (David Schwimmer and his best friend (Jason Lee). After a brief appearance in David O. Russells excellent war satire, Three Kings (1999), Greer played a high school nerd who enters a Faustian bargain, exchanging her silence regarding the accidental death of a student for a beauty makeover in the dark comedy Jawbreaker (1999). In a more serious rolealbeit in a comedyshe played a mousy office worker saved from suicide by a clairvoyant Mel Gibson in the surprise comedy hit, What Women Want (2000).
Greer continued appearing in top movies, including the light and fluffy Jennifer Lopez vehicle, The Wedding Planner (2001), and the unfortunate What Planet are You From? (2001), a typical flop via Garry Shandling. In fact, it has been her performance as the ditzy assistant to a workaholic wedding planner that garnered Greer so much attention from fans and critics even years after its release. After a minor role in the equally minor spoof, The Specials (2000), she had a small role in Adaptation (2002) as a waitress lusted after by a fumbling Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage). She then helped a hip Jewish private detective (Adam Goldberg) save Hanukkah from Evil Santa (Andy Dick, of course) in the little-seen holiday comedy, The Hebrew Hammer (2003).
Though primarily focusing on film, Greer crossed over to television, most notably in a hilarious recurring role as Kitty, the flighty, frequently breast-baring secretary/lover for Bluth patriarch George (Jeffrey Tambour) on the critically acclaimed satire, Arrested Development (Fox, 2003- ). Previously, she was a regular on the short-lived sitcom, Love & Money (CBS, 1999-2000), and made guest appearances on Just Shoot Me (NBC, 1996-2003), Family Guy (Fox, 1998- ) and CSI: Miami (CBS, 2002- ). She continued her roll of winning performances on film, adding much needed comic relief to M. Night Shyamalans anticlimactic period thriller, The Village (2004). After a small part in Wes Cravens Cursed (2004), she played second fiddle to Jennifer Garner in 13 Going on 30 (2004), about a 13 year-old girl who thinks adulthood cant come fast enoughuntil she suddenly finds herself as a successful 30 year-old career woman with a Fifth Avenue apartment and no clue how she got there. Greer was then cast as Orlando Bloom's sister in writer-director Cameron Crowe's romantic comedy Elizabethtown" (2005).
Copyright © Baseline 2006.