Molly Ringwald

Molly Kathleen Ringwald is an American actress, writer, and translator born on February 18, 1968, in Roseville, California. She is the daughter of Adele Edith, a cook, and Robert Scott Ringwald, a blind jazz pianist. Raised in a musical household and of German and Swedish descent, she began her career as a child actress at age five in a stage production of Alice in Wonderland. At age six, she recorded a Dixieland jazz album titled Molly Sings: I Wanna Be Loved by You with her father's group, the Fulton Street Jazz Band. She later graduated from the Lycée Français de Los Angeles.

Ringwald began her television career in 1978 playing Kate in the West Coast production of Annie. In 1979, she appeared on Diff'rent Strokes and was selected for its spin-off, The Facts of Life, playing student Molly Parker. In 1980, she performed as a lead vocalist on two Disney albums, Yankee Doodle Mickey and Disney's Merry Christmas Carols. Turning to motion pictures, she earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for her key supporting role in the 1982 drama film Tempest.

Ringwald rose to prominence and achieved teen idol status through her lead roles in filmmaker John Hughes's teenage movies. She played Samantha Baker in Sixteen Candles (1984), Claire Standish in The Breakfast Club (1985), and Andie Walsh in Pretty in Pink (1986). These performances led the media to refer to her as a member of the "Brat Pack," though she has stated she was not truly part of that group. Featured on the cover of Time magazine in May 1986, her final starring roles as a teenager were in The Pick-up Artist (1987), For Keeps (1988), and Fresh Horses (1988).

In the 1990s, Ringwald starred in films such as Betsy's Wedding (1990), Something to Live for: The Alison Gertz Story (1992), and Malicious (1995). Fluent in French, she moved to Paris in the mid-1990s and starred in multiple French films while returning to the United States for American projects. Her television credits during this decade included main roles as Frannie Goldsmith in the ABC miniseries The Stand (1994) and Carrie Donovan in the sitcom Townies (1996), alongside stage work such as How I Learned to Drive (1999).

During the 2000s, Ringwald performed in stage productions including tick, tick... BOOM!, Cabaret, Enchanted April, Modern Orthodox, and a national tour of Sweet Charity. From 2008 to 2013, she played Anne Juergens in the ABC Family series The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Her subsequent television work includes Raising Expectations (2016–2018), a recurring role as Mary Andrews on Riverdale (2017–2023), and main roles in the biographical anthology series Monster (2022) and Feud (2024). Her film credits in this period include Jem and the Holograms (2015), Siberia (2018), and The Kissing Booth film series (2018–2021).

Beyond acting, Ringwald has translated two French novels into English, Lie with Me and My Cousin Maria Schneider, written an advice column for The Guardian, and narrated the audiobook The Middlesteins. In 2013, she released a jazz album titled Except Sometimes. In February 2024, she made her runway modeling debut at New York Fashion Week. Ringwald was married to French writer Valéry Lameignère from 1999 to 2002, and married writer and editor Panio Gianopoulos in 2007, with whom she has three children.