Jeri Ryan Biography
Born: February 22, 1968
Birth Name: J.R. Lynn Zimmerman
Date of Birth: February 22, 1968
Born in Munich, Germany to an Army officer, J.R. Ryan has lived all over the United States. A self-admitted Army brat raised on military bases from Kentucky to Hawaii, her family settled down in Paduch, Kentucky when she was 11.
While in college, she won the sixth annual Miss Northwestern Alpha Delta Phi Pageant in 1989. A junior majoring in Speech, Ryan also won the talent contest singing "On My Own" from Les Miserables and co-won the swimsuit contest. Later on that year, she won the Miss Illinois Pageant and went on to place third runner-up in the 1990 Miss America Pageant.
After graduating from Northwestern University in Chicago as a National Merit Scholar with a B.S. in theater, she came to Los Angeles.
Ryan landed parts in the shows Melrose Place, Time Trax, Matlock, and Murder, She Wrote before getting picked by NBC to star in the show Dark Skies. She was in seven episodes until the show was cancelled. Nevertheless, those appearances were good enough to help her get the part of Seven of Nine in Star Trek Voyager. Her character revived the show's plummeting ratings and brought in a new wave of viewers.
Ryan's television experience also includes roles in a variety of telefilms such as Coed Call Girl, Nightmare in Columbia County, NBC's In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco and UPN's The Sentinel. Her feature film credits include the independent films The Last Man and Men Cry Bullets.
She has completed her first big budget feature film, The Kid (2000) which features her as a celebrity who hires a high-powered image consultant, played by Bruce Willis, to help her with her image problems.
Although an accomplished actress, Ryan considers her greatest role to be that of mother to her son Alex. "As a mom, I'm more patient and feel more complete," she says. "Nobody could have convinced me while I was pregnant of how magical it would be to be a mother." Ryan was married in 1991, but has split up with her husband since 1998.
Filmography:
Dracula 2000 (2000)
The Kid (2000)
The Last Man (2000)
Men Cry Bullets (1997)