Lauren Holly

Lauren Holly’s acting career began at the age of 20 when she appeared as Carla Walicki in two episodes of Hill Street Blues. She was also in one episode of Spenser: For Hire. At age 23, she joined the cast of the ABC television soap opera All My Children as Julie Rand Chandler (1986–1989). She portrayed the comic book character Betty Cooper in the TV movie Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again in 1990.

In 1992, Holly’s big break came when she was cast as small-town Deputy Sheriff Maxine Stewart opposite veteran movie actor Tom Skerritt on CBS’s Picket Fences for four seasons, appearing in every episode except one. She portrayed Linda Lee Cadwell, the wife of martial artist and actor Bruce Lee, in 1993’s Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. She appeared as Mary Swanson, Lloyd Christmas’s love interest, in the 1994 Jim Carrey comedy Dumb and Dumber; a doctor in Sydney Pollack’s 1995 remake of Sabrina; and Lieutenant Emily Lake in the 1996 comedy Down Periscope with Kelsey Grammer. In 1999, she starred in the film Any Given Sunday as the wife of the Sharks quarterback, played by Dennis Quaid.

Holly appeared in the music video for Dixie Chicks’ single “Goodbye Earl” (2000). She was a member of the cast of NCIS as Director Jenny Shepard from 2005 to 2008, reuniting with her former Chicago Hope co-stars Mark Harmon and Rocky Carroll. Holly portrayed the “worldly and stunning” lead medical examiner Dr. Betty Rogers, a regular character on the CTV series Motive. In 2014, she was reunited with her Picket Fences co-star, Tom Skerritt, in the film Field of Lost Shoes. In 2015, Holly starred in Oz Perkins’ horror film The Blackcoat’s Daughter. In 2018, Holly was cast in a recurring role in the third season of Netflix’s Designated Survivor as Lynn Harper.