Joey Lauren Adams

Joey Lauren Adams was born on January 9, 1968, in North Little Rock, Arkansas, the youngest of three children to a lumber yard owner. She graduated from North Little Rock Northeast High School in 1986 and decided to pursue acting after spending a year as an exchange student in Australia. Her career began in television with an appearance in “Married… with Children” (1991) and a starring role in its spin-off “Top of the Heap” (1991). Adams then transitioned to film, securing her first major role as Simone in Richard Linklater’s “Dazed and Confused” (1993) and appearing in the “Saturday Night Live” spin-off film “Coneheads” (1993).

Adams gained significant recognition for her performance as Alyssa Jones in Kevin Smith’s film “Chasing Amy” (1997), a role for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Her work on “Chasing Amy” also earned her the 1997 Chicago Film Critics Award and Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Most Promising Actress. She continued to work with Kevin Smith, making appearances in “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” (2001) and the animated short “Clerks: The Lost Scene” (2004). Adams also starred opposite Adam Sandler in the successful comedy “Big Daddy” (1999) and had a guest role in the TV series “Veronica Mars” (2005).

In 2006, Adams made her directorial debut with the film “Come Early Morning,” which she also wrote. The film, starring Ashley Judd, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. For her work on “Come Early Morning,” she was co-awarded the Women in Film Dorothy Arzner Directors Award. She returned to television roles, including a recurring part in “The United States of Tara” (2010) and “Still the King” (2016–2017). Adams’ filmography includes over seventy acting credits, demonstrating a sustained career in Hollywood as both an actress and a director.