Background and career
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) and St. Elmo's Fire (1985), Sheedy and many of her co-stars were nicknamed the "Brat Pack". She subsequently appeared in the films Twice in a Lifetime (1985), Blue City, Short Circuit (both 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). She had a main role in the comedy television series Single Drunk Female (2022–2023). Sheedy also works as a literary editor and has authored two books, including the best-selling historical fiction novel She Was Nice to Mice (1975) which was published when she was aged 12. Since 2021, Sheedy has taught at the City College of New York.
Alexandra Elizabeth Sheedy was born on June 13, 1962, in New York City, the eldest of three children of Charlotte (née Baum), a literary agent involved in women's and civil rights movements, and John Sheedy Jr., an advertising executive. Her mother is Ashkenazi Jewish, and her father has Irish Catholic ancestry. Sheedy's maternal grandmother emigrated from Odessa, Ukraine. Sheedy identifies as Jewish. Her parents divorced in 1971. Sheedy was raised on the Upper West Side. She danced with American Ballet Theatre from the age of six, and well into adolescence. She attended the Bank Street School for Children, followed by Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, graduating in 1980. In her senior year she directed a stage production of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.
Sheedy's first literary piece was published in Ms. when she was twelve. She wrote freelance reviews of kids' books for The New York Times, Ms. and The Village Voice.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. 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. It was illustrated by Sheedy's friend Jessica Ann Levy. The novel was well-received and became a best-seller. Sheedy's novel landed her on the game show To Tell the Truth and the talk show The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. An audiobook record, narrated by Sheedy, was released in 1976 on the Caedmon label. She earned enough royalties to put herself through college.
Sheedy began a career in acting, despite parental disapproval; she started acting in commercials at the age of 15. 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. Sheedy subsequently appeared in the television movies The Best Little Girl in the World (1981) and The Violation of Sarah McDavid (1981), and in guest roles on the drama series Chicago Story (1982), St. Elsewhere (1982) and Hill Street Blues (1983).Sheedy rose to fame with a string of major film roles. She made her film acting debut in the crime drama film Bad Boys (1983), in which she played the girlfriend of Sean Penn's character. The same year, she starred alongside Matthew Broderick in the science fiction film WarGames, 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). 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. She starred alongside various Brat Pack members in The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire, both 1985 coming-of-age films with ensemble casts. Sheedy disliked the label, calling it in 1986 "snotty" and "condescending and sort of dismissive in a way", and said the article's publication caused the social group to splinter.
In Twice in a Lifetime (1985), she played the daughter of Gene Hackman's character. Sheedy appeared with Judd Nelson in Blue City (1986), which was poorly reviewed. Her first starring film role was in the science fiction comedy film Short Circuit (1986), in which her character Stephanie befriends an escaped robot. Sheedy noted that she became typecast in coming-of-age films.
Sheedy had lead roles in the films Maid to Order (1987) and Heart of Dixie (1989), both commercial flops. For her performances in Blue City and Heart of Dixie, Sheedy received two nominations for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress. Sheedy was told that her perceived lack of sex appeal was to blame for her stalling career, and she was encouraged by both her management team and film producers to alter her appearance and public persona. 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." Sheedy starred in the horror film Fear (1990) as a psychic. She also featured in the romantic comedy films Betsy's Wedding (1990) and Only the Lonely (1991); for the former, she was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress. Sheedy made a cameo appearance in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) as an airline attendant. Her performances in Fear and Man's Best Friend (1993) earned her two more Saturn Award nominations for Best Actress. Sheedy's book of poetry, Yesterday I Saw the Sun, was published by Summit Books in 1991. It was not critically well-reviewed. In 1997, Sheedy was fired by her talent agency William Morris. She returned to New York and spent a decade studying with acting teacher Harold Guskin. Sheedy starred in the independent romantic drama film High Art (1998) as Lucy Berliner, a heroin-addicted lesbian photographer. Sheedy was actively searching for an "interesting" role such as Lucy, and flew to meet writer-director Lisa Cholodenko after reading High Art's script. Her performance was recognized with awards from the Independent Spirit Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and National Society of Film Critics. Critics noted that the role contrasted the "girl-next-door" image Sheedy cultivated in the early 80s. Sheedy stated in 2022 that High Art was her favourite film in her filmography. Film critic Guy Lodge, writing for The Guardian in 2024, called it her best performance.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
