Joey Lauren Adams is an American actress, and director and has appeared in more than 40 films. Joey appeared in several Kevin Smith View Askewniverse films, including Chasing Amy, for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
Joey announced her intention to pursue acting after one year as an exchange student in Australia. Adams resides in Beverly Hills, California.
Joey Lauren Adams was born on January 9, 1968 in North Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S. She is 50 years old as of 2018.
Joey was born the youngest in a family of three children. Lauren’s father was a lumber yard owner. She grew up in the Overbrook neighborhood of North Little Rock and graduated from North Little Rock Northeast High School in 1986.
Adams has been married to Brian Vilim since 2014.
There is no current information about Lauren’s children.
Lauren began her film career in 1977 with a small role in Exorcist II: The Heretic. From there Adams began to find larger roles.
She appeared in “Top of the Heap”, the 100th episode of Married… with Children, and subsequently starred in its short-lived spinoff in 1991. She also landed her first major film role as Simone in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused in 1993. In the same year, Adams appeared in the Saturday Night Live spinoff film Coneheads as one of Connie Conehead’s friends.
Two years later, She appeared in Mallrats, written and directed by Kevin Smith two years later. The two then started dating during the film’s post-production. Their relationship provided the inspiration for Smith’s next film, Chasing Amy. However, the relationship did not last long, but ended on friendly terms. While Smith was finalizing the script for Chasing Amy in 1996, Joey was cast in the slapstick comedy Bio-Dome, which was directed by Jason Bloom. She played the role of Monique, Bud Macintosh’s (Pauly Shore) girlfriend.
In the 1997’s Chasing Amy, Lauren played the lead role of Alyssa Jones, a lesbian who falls in love with a man which is played by Ben Affleck. Later, Kevin would describe Chasing Amy as a “sort of penance/valentine” and a “thank-you homage” to Adams. In addition to Joey’s acting work on the film, she wrote and performed the song “Alive” for the film’s soundtrack.
Her performance in Chasing Amy earned her both the 1997 Chicago Film Critics Award and Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Most Promising Actress, and also a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress-Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. From there, she was originally slated to play the female lead in Smith’s next film, 1999’s Dogma, but Linda Fiorentino ultimately was assigned the role. However, Adams would later make brief appearances in two other Smith projects: the 2001 film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and the 2004 animated short Clerks: The Lost Scene, featured on the Clerks X DVD. In both of these appearances, she reprises the Alyssa Jones role.
Adams post-Smith projects included playing a spunky veterinarian’s assistant who falls in love with a single father (Vince Vaughn) in 1998’s A Cool, Dry Place.
The following year, she appeared in her first big-budget Hollywood release, playing Adam Sandler’s love interest in the successful comedy Big Daddy. Adams then went on to appear in many smaller films, including Beautiful and also In the Shadows. She had a guest role in an episode of the TV series Veronica Mars in 2005.
Also in 2006, Joey released her directorial debut film, Come Early Morning, starring Ashley Judd, Jeffrey Donovan, Diane Ladd, Tim Blake Nelson and Laura Prepon. The film which was shot on location in Little Rock, Arkansas, was then selected for the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.
Adams, along with Lian Lunson and Nicole Holofcener, was awarded the Women in Film Dorothy Arzner Directors Award in 2006. Interscope Records released her directorial debut for a music video entitled “Belle of the Boulevard” by Dashboard Confessional on November 24, 2009.
She returned to TV in March 2010, on the Showtime series The United States of Tara. Joey appeared in six episodes as Pammy, a barmaid who falls for Buck, one of the title character’s alternate personalities.
Regarding her voice, Adams has commented: “It’s not a normal voice. It doesn’t fit into people’s preconceptions about what a woman’s voice should sound like. My mom doesn’t think I have an unusual voice, though. I’m sure it has helped me get some roles. But Chasing Amy I almost didn’t get. There was concern the voice would grate on some people, which some critics said it did.” One film critic referred to her voice as a “sex-kitten-on-helium”. Another said that whether viewers loved it or hated it, her voice had “the potential to hypnotize.”
Joey still goes on with her acting career, dwelling much on writing and directing.
Joey played Tracy McConnell in the season twelve Grey’s Anatomy episode Sledgehammer.
The Chasing Amy actress has an estimated net worth of $2 million.
Year | Title | Role |
2014 | Making the Rules | Becca |
Sequoia | Bev | |
Valley Inn | Althea | |
Animal | Vicky | |
All the Birds Have Flown South | Tonya | |
2013 | Blue Caprice | Jamie |
A Country Christmas | Renae Logan | |
She Loves Me Not | Beth | |
2012 | The Birthday Present | Mom |
Mulberry Stains | Savannah | |
Art Machine | Prudence | |
2011 | Big Swim | The Egg |
Apart | Dr. Jane Sheppard | |
2010 | Endure | Sirena Lane |
2009 | ExTerminators | Kim |
2008 | Trucker | Jenny Bell |
2007 | Bunny Whipped | Ann |
2006 | The Break-Up | Addie |
2005 | Conflict | Ricci Storm |
2004 | The Gunman | Daphne |
2003 | The Big Empty | Grace |
2002 | Grand Champion | Hallie |
Beeper | Inspector Julia Hyde | |
2001 | Harvard Man | Chesney Cort |
Dr. Dolittle 2 | Squirrel (voice) | |
Reaching Normal | Sarah | |
In the Shadows | Clarissa Huston | |
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back | Alyssa Jones | |
2000 | Bruno | Donna Marie |
Beautiful | Ruby | |
1999 | A Cool, Dry Place | Beth Ward |
Big Daddy | Layla Maloney | |
1997 | Chasing Amy | Alyssa Jones |
1996 | Bio-Dome | Monique |
Drawing Flies | Hippy Chick | |
Michael | Anita | |
1995 | Mallrats | Gwen Turner |
1994 | Sleep with Me | Lauren |
S.F.W. | Monica Dice | |
1993 | Coneheads | Christina |
Dazed and Confused | Simone Kerr | |
The Program | Louanne Winters | |
The Pros & Cons of Breathing | Shirley |
Year | Title | Role |
2016–17 | Still the King | Debbie Lynn Cooke |
2015 | Grey’s Anatomy | Dr. Tracy McConnell |
2013–14 | Switched at Birth | Jeniece Papagus |
2012 | Supermoms | Kelly |
2010 | Tough Trade | Shawnelle |
United States of Tara | Pammy | |
Frenemies | Joy Hardwick | |
2009–10 | Party Down | Diandra Stiltskin |
2005 | What’s New, Scooby-Doo? | Rachel (voice) |
Veronica Mars | Geena Stafford | |
2003 | As Told by Ginger | Thea Mipson |
2003–04 | Stripperella | Catt (voice) |
1999 | Hercules | Electra (voice) |
1996 | Second Noah | Darby |
1995 | Love & War | Vicky |
Out of Order | Whitney | |
Double Rush | Dee Dee | |
1993 | Married… with Children | Janie |
1992 | Vinnie & Bobby | Mona Mullins |
CBS Schoolbreak Special | Dianne | |
1991 | Top of the Heap | Mona Mullins |
Married… with Children | Mona Mullins | |
Married… with Children | Cousin Effie |
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