Jennifer Rubin

Jennifer Collene Rubin is an American actress and model. Born on April 3, 1962, she first rose to prominence through her modeling career in the 1980s before transitioning to acting. She is best known for her breakout role as Taryn White in the 1987 horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, as well as her performances across a wide range of feature films, television series, and music videos.

Rubin was raised in Phoenix, Arizona. Following her birth, she spent extended time in an incubator in a hospital neonatal unit. Her father was a pharmacist, and her mother had four children by the age of 21. Her parents divorced when she was very young, and her mother later remarried. Rubin grew up alongside a brother and sisters, one of whom has multiple sclerosis. As a youth, she was a competitive swimmer, and she has spoken about having learning disabilities, including mild autism. She graduated from Thunderbird High School and attended the University of Arizona, where she entered a campus modeling competition.

Rubin abandoned college to move to New York City and pursue modeling full-time after signing with the Ford Modeling Agency. In 1984, she was named the Ford International Model of the Year. She also signed with Wilhelmina Models and served as the original model for Calvin Klein Obsession advertisements. Her modeling work included assignments in Paris, cosmetic campaigns in Japan and the Philippines, and features in Harper's Bazaar and Vogue.

Following Phoebe Cates' transition from modeling to acting, Rubin decided to pursue roles herself. Her first major role was Taryn White in the 1987 fantasy horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, which earned over $44 million at the American box office. That same year, she guest-starred as Amy Hawkline on The Twilight Zone. Over the next few years, she starred in film projects such as Bad Dreams, Permanent Record, Blueberry Hill, and Too Much Sun, and portrayed Claire in a 1989 episode of Miami Vice.

In 1991, Rubin played socialite Edie Sedgwick in Oliver Stone's biographical film The Doors, meeting with Bob Dylan during her preparation for the role. She followed this with roles in Delusion, Drop Dead Gorgeous, A Woman, Her Men, and Her Futon, The Fear Inside, and an episode of Tales from the Crypt. In 1993, she portrayed Amy Maddik in The Crush alongside Alicia Silverstone and Cary Elwes, and starred in Bitter Harvest and Full Eclipse. Her mid-1990s projects included Saints and Sinners, Playmaker, Red Scorpion 2, Screamers, Deceptions II: Edge of Deception, and The Wasp Woman, in which she played the main character Janice Starlin. She also appeared in the short film The Coriolis Effect alongside Dana Ashbrook and Quentin Tarantino, as well as music videos for Bruce Hornsby's Harbor Lights and Chris Isaak's Somebody's Crying.

Rubin produced and starred in the 1999 film Road Kill, and appeared in projects such as Twists of Terror, Plump Fiction, Bel-Air, Sanctimony, Cruel Game, Reunion, Transmorphers: Fall of Man, Heebie Jeebies, and Untold. In 2010, she appeared as herself in the documentary Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy, and has since worked as a writer, producer, and director on original screenplays. In her personal life, Rubin was married to actor Elias Koteas from 1987 until their divorce in 1990.