Kelly McGillis is an American actress who first found fame in the 1980s thanks to her BAFTA-nominated performance in the crime drama film, Witness, alongside Harrison Ford. She also co-starred in Top Gun and had leading roles in Made in Heaven and The Accused among other films. In recent years, she has focused more on horror films, appearing in the likes of We Are What We Are and The Innkeepers. She also currently teaches acting in North Carolina for the New York Studio for Stage and Screen.

McGillis grew up in Los Angeles and studied at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Santa Maria. However, she ultimately dropped out of high school and went to New York to study at the prestigious Juilliard School, graduating in 1983. She went on to become one of that year’s most successful alumni, particularly after playing an Amish mother in Witness, a sleeper hit that won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay among a host of other nominations. McGillis’ place in film history was then sealed when she co-starred with Tom Cruise in Top Gun, one of the definitive movies of the 1980s and still regarded as one of the all-time great action films.

McGillis’ acting career has also featured much stage work, and she was a featured actress at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC, for more than a decade. She has also toured the States and Britain, starring in plays such as The Graduate.