Elizabeth Berkley

Elizabeth Berkley is an American actress best known for her roles as Jessie Spano in the Saved by the Bell television franchise and Nomi Malone in the 1995 film Showgirls. She has appeared in supporting roles in box office hits such as The First Wives Club and Any Given Sunday, as well as films including The Curse of the Jade Scorpion and Roger Dodger. Beyond her film and television career, Berkley has performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in London's West End.

Berkley was born in Farmington Hills, Michigan, to Jere and Fred Berkley. Her mother ran a gift-basket business and her father was a lawyer. Raised in a Conservative Jewish household alongside her older brother, Jason, she celebrated her bat mitzvah in West Bloomfield. Born with heterochromia iridis, her left eye is green and her right eye is half green and half brown. At age four, she began jazz and tap dance lessons, later taking ballet classes with Dance Detroit and performing in productions of Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.

While attending school, Berkley took acting and singing classes, making her stage debut as Snoopy in a local production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. She gained regional theatre experience and earned her Actors Equity card in middle school. Berkley also worked as a print and commercial model. After writing a personal letter to producer Norman Lear, she connected with talent agent Judy Savage, leading to her television debut on Gimme a Break! and her film debut in the short film Platinum Blonde, both filmed in 1986.

In 1989, Berkley landed her breakthrough role as Jessie Spano, a civil-minded student with feminist views, on the NBC Saturday-morning sitcom Saved by the Bell. The show quickly gained a strong youth audience and turned its leads into television stars. During production breaks, she guest-starred on series such as Life Goes On and The Hogan Family. She departed Saved by the Bell during its fourth season to focus on feature films, subsequently appearing in television series and movies including Baywatch, Step by Step, and Diagnosis: Murder while studying English literature at UCLA.

Berkley was cast as Nomi Malone in Paul Verhoeven's 1995 NC-17 film Showgirls following an extensive casting process. Although the movie was a box-office bomb upon release and faced intense critical backlash, Berkley's performance became a major focal point of discussion, and she was awarded two Razzie Awards. Following the fallout, she embarked on an international promotional tour to rebuild her career and resumed acting training with Howard Fine and Uta Hagen.

Her career regained momentum when she played Phoebe LaVelle in the 1996 hit comedy The First Wives Club, earning a National Board of Review award alongside her fellow cast members. She went on to play Julia Winston in CSI: Miami and Kelly Wentworth in The L Word. On stage, she appeared in Peter Hall's West End production of Lenny, the Broadway comedy Sly Fox, and the Off-Broadway production of Hurlyburly. Berkley hosted Step It Up and Dance, published the 2011 New York Times best-selling book Ask-Elizabeth, and reprised her role as Jessie Spano in the 2020 Saved by the Bell reboot, for which she also served as a producer.