Jami Gertz (born October 28, 1965) is an American actress and businesswoman known for her 1980s film and TV roles, blockbuster disaster movie Twister (1996), and co-ownership of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks with her billionaire husband, Tony Ressler.
- Born in Chicago, Illinois.
- Discovered at age 16 in a talent search, leading to her breakout TV role in the sitcom Square Pegs (1982–1983).
- Starred in iconic 1980s teen and drama films including Sixteen Candles (1984), Crossroads (1986), The Lost Boys (1987), and Less than Zero (1987).
- Continued her television and movie career in the 1990s and 2000s, starring in the box office hit Twister (1996), the CBS sitcom Still Standing (2002–2006), and ABC’s The Neighbors (2012–2014
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Marriage and Business Ventures
- Met financier Tony Ressler in 1986 while filming The Lost Boys; they married in June 1989 and have three sons together.
- Transitioned heavily into business and sports ownership as her husband co-founded major investment firms like Ares Management.
- Purchased a major ownership stake in the Atlanta Hawks NBA franchise in 2015 alongside her husband.
- Active in civic, philanthropic, and sports administration fields, earning recognition as one of the wealthiest figures with a background in entertainment.
Career
Gertz was discovered by Norman Lear in a nationwide talent search and studied drama at NYU. As a child actor, Gertz was in one episode of Diff’rent Strokes along with Andrew Dice Clay. She also had a recurring role on The Facts of Life as Blair’s friend and schoolmate Boots St. Clair. Gertz made her film debut in the 1981 romance film Endless Love, which was followed by a co-starring role in the 1982–83 TV sitcom series Square Pegs. She gained more significant attention with a starring role in 1987’s Less than Zero, as the friend of a doomed drug addict played by Robert Downey Jr. She also starred in the 1987 film The Lost Boys alongside Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Patric.
After working in Paris as a scent designer for Lanvin, Gertz returned to the United States. She appeared in films including 1986’s Solarbabies and Crossroads, the 1989 film Listen to Me with Kirk Cameron, Don’t Tell Her It’s Me, and Jerey Girl. In the 1994 episode of Seinfeld, “The Stall”, she appeared as one of Jerry’s girlfriends, who works as a phone sex operator and cannot “spare a square” of toilet paper for Elaine in the restroom. Also in 1994, she played Sarah in the TV movie This Can’t Be Love, starring Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Quinn and Jason Bateman. She landed a supporting role, in the 1996 blockbuster Twister. Gertz later played the recurring character Dr. Nina Pomerantz during the 1997 season of ER. She reportedly was offered, but declined, the role of Rachel Green, during pre-production of Friends.
In 2000, Gertz took up a recurring role on the Fox hit Ally McBeal as Kimmy Bishop, John Cage’s love interest. Gertz was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. She returned to this role in one more episode as a guest star in the show’s final season in 2002. Also in 2002, she portrayed comedian Gilda Radner in the television movie Gilda Radner: It’s Always Something.] Gertz’s character on Still Standing, Judy Miller, is named after a character Radner portrayed on Saturday Night Live. Still Standing, a television sitcom in which Gertz co-starred with Mark Addy and which originally aired from 2002 to 2006, was her longest-running and most successful television show to date.
In 2003, Gertz starred as Brandi, a wanted criminal’s girlfriend, in Undercover Christmas, and in 2005 Gertz played the lead role in the TV film Fighting the Odds: The Marilyn Gambrell Story. In 2009–10, she had a recurring role as Marlo Klein, wife of Ari Gold’s newest business partner Andrew Klein, an agent at Miller-Gold Talent Agency, on HBO’s Entourage. In 2011, she returned to broadcast television with a guest role in the Modern Family episode “Slow Down Your Neighbors”. In 2011, she earned a producer’s credit on the Academy Award-nominated film A Better Life, which was put in limited release throughout the month of June and early July before arriving on DVD in October.
From 2012 to 2014, Gertz starred in the ABC sitcom The Neighbors, in which she played the mother of a human family that moves into a neighborhood populated by residents from another planet.
Business endeavors
Gertz and her husband, private equity investor Tony Ressler, are members of the investment group led by Mark Attanasio that purchased the Miwaukee Brewers of Major League Baseball. They also became owners of the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 2015.[ Gertz represented the Hawks in the NBA draft lottery for the 2018, 2019 and 2020 NBA drafts.
Philanthropy
The Giving Back Fund named Gertz and Ressler as the top celebrity charitable donors in 2010. Gertz serves as a board member of the Melanoma Research Alliance, the largest nonprofit funder of melanoma research.
Personal life
Gertz married Tony Ressler in 1989. Gertz and Ressler have a daughter and three sons.
