Beth Broderick

Beth Broderick, born way back in ’59 in Kentucky but really a California girl at heart, has always been kinda obsessed with theater. Even as a kid, she was all about the stage. She zipped through the American Academy of Dramatic Arts by 18—overachiever much?—and then jetted straight to New York to chase acting dreams. But here’s a plot twist: she put her career on ice for a few years in the early ’80s to dive headfirst into the AIDS crisis, which, honestly, takes guts. By the time she was 27, though, she was back at it. Her film debut? Playing the sultry neighbor in Stealing Home (1988), trying to teach Jonathan Silverman a thing or two. Two years later, she popped up in The Bonfire of the Vanities, just showing off her range. But it’s not just movies—Beth’s knocked out a bunch of theater gigs, like Carnal Knowledge and Zastrozzi, the Master of Discipline (which she helped produce). New York stages? She’s done The Mousetrap, The Lion in Winter, and way more. Beth’s not just sticking to acting. She’s penned scripts with Dennis Bailey—A Cup of Joe, Wonderland, Literatti—and even stepped behind the camera to direct an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Activism’s a huge part of her life too; she’s been fighting the good fight against AIDS since ’84, founding Momentum in NYC and helping out with the Celebrity Action Council, giving homeless women a real shot at turning things around. Basically, she’s got her fingerprints all over the place—acting, writing, directing, making the world less crappy.