Ally Sheedy

Ally Sheedy
Sheedy in 2011
Born	(1962-06-13) June 13, 1962 New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1975–present
Spouse	David Lansbury ​ ​ (m. 1992; div. 2009)​
Children	1

Alexandra Elizabeth Sheedy (born June 13, 1962) is an American actress, author and teacher. Born in New York City, Sheedy began her career as a teenager acting in commercials and guest roles on television. She made her theatrical film debut in Bad Boys (1983). Due to her appearances in a string of teen-oriented films such as Oxford Blues (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), St. Elmo's Fire (1985), and Blue City (1986), Sheedy and many of her co-stars were nicknamed the "Brat Pack".

She subsequently appeared in the films Twice in a Lifetime (1985), Short Circuit (1986), Betsy's Wedding (1990) and Only the Lonely (1991). She received three Saturn Award nominations for Best Actress for the science fiction films WarGames (1983), Fear (1990) and Man's Best Friend (1993). Following a career downturn in the late 1980s, Sheedy won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for playing a drug-addicted lesbian photographer in the romantic drama film High Art (1998). From 2022 to 2023 she had a main role in the comedy television series Single Drunk Female.

Sheedy has also worked in the literary industry; at the age of 12, her best-selling historical fiction novel She Was Nice to Mice (1975) was published. Since 2021, Sheedy has taught at the City College of New York.

Alexandra Elizabeth Sheedy^[1][2] was born on June 13, 1962,^[3] in New York City,^[4][5] the eldest of three children of Charlotte (née Baum), a literary agent involved in women's and civil rights movements,^[1][6][7] and John Sheedy Jr., an advertising executive.^[6][8] Her mother is Ashkenazi Jewish, and her father has Irish Catholic ancestry. Sheedy's maternal grandmother, Dora, emigrated from Odessa, Ukraine.^[9][10] Her parents divorced in 1971.^[11][12]

Sheedy was raised on the Upper West Side.^[1][6] She danced with American Ballet Theatre from the age of six, and well into adolescence.^[11] She attended the Bank Street School for Children,^[4] followed by Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, graduating in 1980.^[13][14] In her senior year she directed a stage production of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.^[14]

Sheedy's first literary piece was published in Ms. when she was twelve.^[15] She wrote freelance reviews of kids' books for The New York Times, Ms. and The Village Voice.^[a]

Sheedy often wrote short stories in her youth. She enjoyed novels with animal protagonists such as Stuart Little (1945), and had an interest in the Tudors sparked by the film Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), which led to her writing a story about a mouse living at the court of Queen Elizabeth I. She read two chapters to her mother's friend, Joyce Johnson, who brought it to McGraw Hill Education as a possible project.^[18][19] In 1975, McGraw Hill published the story as a novel titled She Was Nice to Mice: The Other Side of Elizabeth I's Character Never Before Revealed by Previous Historians.^[b] It was illustrated by Sheedy's friend Jessica Ann Levy.^[2] The novel was well-received^[1] and became a best-seller.^[c]

Sheedy promoted the novel on the game show To Tell the Truth^[24][19] and the talk show The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.^[25] An audiobook record, narrated by Sheedy, was released in 1976 on the Caedmon label.^[26] She earned enough royalties to put herself through college.^[25]

Sheedy began a career in acting, despite parental disapproval;^[23] she started acting in commercials at the age of 15.^{[27][17][25][d]} At age 18, she relocated to Los Angeles, where she enrolled at the University of Southern California. Sheedy concurrently began her acting career and intermittently completed three years' worth of courses toward a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama.^[17][30][12]

Sheedy's first dramatic television role was in the CBS Afternoon Playhouse episode "I Think I'm Having a Baby".^[31] Throughout the early 1980s she appeared in the television movies The Best Little Girl in the World (1981)^[32] and The Violation of Sarah McDavid (1981),^[33] and in guest roles on the drama series Chicago Story (1982),^[34] St. Elsewhere (1982) and Hill Street Blues (1983).

Sheedy rose to fame with a string of major film roles.^[35][6] She made her theatrical acting debut in the crime drama film Bad Boys (1983),^[5][35] in which she played the girlfriend of Sean Penn's character.^[11] The same year, she starred alongside Matthew Broderick in the science fiction film WarGames,^[36] for which she was nominated for her first Saturn Award for Best Actress and for the Youth in Film Award for Best Young Actress Starring in a Motion Picture. She co-starred with Rob Lowe in Oxford Blues (1984).^[37]

In 1985, Sheedy became associated with the "Brat Pack", an informal group of young actors who frequently co-starred in teen-oriented films. Reporter David Blum used the term—a play on the "Rat Pack"—to refer to Sheedy's past co-stars Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe and Judd Nelson in the New York article "Hollywood's Brat Pack", but the media subsequently included Sheedy along with actors Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall.^[38][39][17] She starred alongside various Brat Pack members in The Breakfast Club (1985) and St. Elmo's Fire (1985), both coming-of-age films with ensemble casts.^[40][39] Sheedy disliked the label, calling it in 1986 "snotty"^[25] and "condescending and sort of dismissive in a way".^[17]

In Twice in a Lifetime (1985), she played the daughter of Gene Hackman's character.^[41][42] Sheedy appeared with Judd Nelson in Blue City (1986), which was poorly reviewed.^[43][25] Her first starring film role was in the science fiction comedy film Short Circuit (1986), in which her character Stephanie befriends an escaped robot.^[17][25]

Sheedy had lead roles in the films Maid to Order (1987) and Heart of Dixie (1989),^[44][45] both commercial flops.^[6] Sheedy was told that her perceived lack of sex appeal was to blame for her stalling career,^[30][6] and she was encouraged by both her management team and film producers to alter her appearance and public persona.^[e] Sheedy reflected in 1998 that "I did not do the things I was supposed to do to make myself into a movie star. Part of that is because it went against my ethics, and part of it was I realized at a certain point that being a movie star isn’t what I wanted to be."^[6]

Sheedy starred in the horror film Fear (1990) as a psychic.^[47] She also featured in the films Betsy's Wedding (1990), Only the Lonely (1991), and Man's Best Friend (1993).^[48][49] Fear and Man's Best Friend earned her two more Saturn Award nominations for Best Actress. Her book of poetry, Yesterday I Saw the Sun, was published by Summit Books in 1991. It was not critically well-reviewed.^[27][1] In 1997, Sheedy was fired by her talent agency William Morris.^[1][12] She returned to New York and spent a decade studying with acting teacher Harold Guskin.^{[1][5][6][11]}

Sheedy starred in the independent romantic drama film High Art (1998) as Lucy Berliner, a heroin-addicted lesbian photographer.^[11][46] Sheedy was actively searching for an "interesting" role such as Lucy,^[10] and impulsively flew to meet writer-director Lisa Cholodenko after reading High Art's script.^[1][21][46] Her performance was recognized with awards from the Independent Spirit Awards,^[50] Los Angeles Film Critics Association,^[51] and National Society of Film Critics.^[52] Contemporary critics noted that the role contrasted the "girl-next-door" image Sheedy cultivated in the early 80s.^[11][53] Sheedy stated in 2022 that High Art was her favourite film in her filmography.^[35] Critic Guy Lodge, writing for The Guardian in 2024, called it her best performance.^[54]

In September 1999, Sheedy took over the titular role in the off-Broadway production of the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. She was the first woman to play the part of the transsexual Hedwig, but her run ended two months early amid "mixed" reviews.^[55][56][5] That same year, she starred in the ensemble cast of the independent film Sugar Town.^[57][58]

She was reunited with Breakfast Club co-star Anthony Michael Hall when she guest starred on second season of the television series The Dead Zone (2003).^[59]

Sheedy appeared in the 2007 episode "Leapin' Lizards" of C.S.I., in which she played a woman who murdered her boyfriend's wife while mixed up in a cult. On March 3, 2008, Sheedy was introduced as the character Sarah in the ABC Family show Kyle XY. In 2009, she played the role of Mr. Yang on the USA Network television show Psych (in the third-season finale), a role that she reprised in the fourth season, fifth season, and seventh season finales.^{[60][53][11][25][12][61]}

In 2015, Sheedy volunteered as a teacher at LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts.^[62][63]

As of 2021, Sheedy has been a professor in the theater department at the City College of New York of the City University of New York in the Hamilton Heights section of New York City.^{[64][30][65][35][66]} Sheedy edits literary works under a pseudonym.^[35] From 2022 to 2023, she played the role of Carol in the Freeform series Single Drunk Female.^[67][35][68]

In 2024, Deadline reported that Sony was considering producing a sequel to St. Elmo’s Fire with the original cast, including Sheedy.^[69]

In January 2026, it was announced that Sheedy had joined the City College of New York’s first Film Advisory Board.^[66]

Sheedy became a vegetarian at the age of 12.^[17][15][70] She has spoken about her struggles with bulimia.^[6][53][11]

Sheedy had an abortion when she was 16.^[6][27][1]

In 1986 and 1987, Sheedy was in a relationship with musician Steve Ross.^[17][70] Around 1989, Sheedy dated Richie Sambora, Bon Jovi's guitarist, for less than a year.^[53][10] Sheedy stated in 1998 that the relationship led her to abuse Halcion, Xanax and antidepressants, a claim Sambora denied.^[53] Her dependency on Halcion was so severe that a group of friends persuaded her to go to the Hazelden Foundation in Minneapolis.^[f] Sheedy briefly dated Woody Harrelson in 1989.^[10][71]

Sheedy met actor David Lansbury, the nephew of actress Angela Lansbury and son of producer Edgar Lansbury, while working together in an off-Broadway play.^[10][72] They married in 1992.^[22] By 2009, Sheedy had filed for divorce from Lansbury.^[4] The couple had one child, who came out as transgender.^[73]

In January 2018, Sheedy published three tweets which included the #MeToo hashtag along with comments referring to actors James Franco and Christian Slater; media outlets assumed this meant the two actors had been sexually abusive to her. She later deleted the tweets.^[74][75]

Sheedy identifies as Jewish.^[10]

• She Was Nice to Mice, McGraw-Hill, 1975, ISBN 0-440-47844-8
• Yesterday I Saw the Sun: Poems, Summit Books, 1991, ISBN 0-671-73130-0

• Gora, Susannah (2010). You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012. New York: Crown Publishers.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ally Sheedy.

• Ally Sheedy at IMDb
• Ally Sheedy at the Internet Broadway Database
• Ally Sheedy at the Internet Off-Broadway Database (archived)
• Salon interview (June 25, 1998)
• New York magazine interview (June 15, 1998)
• Breakfast Club cast interview at the Chicago Tribune (February 17, 1985)
• "The Poetry of Ally Sheedy: A Look Back" (February 24, 2012)