Jessica Capshaw’s mother is actress Kate Capshaw and her stepfather is modern Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg. One would assume her career in any facet of the entertainment industry would be ensured, but the enthusiastic and well-trained blonde actress has worked hard to prove her talent and make her way on her own. Capshaw’s debut screen credit was as an intern on her stepfather’s fact-based Holocaust film “Schindler’s List” (1993) and her first two big screen appearances were in films starring her mother. Still, Capshaw has insisted on being judged on her own merits rather than those of her accomplished parents and auditioned for and won the roles on her own. The actress made her feature debut in “The Locusts” (1997), altering her appearance, donning spectacles and darkening her hair to play a plain small-town girl in this family secrets drama starring Kate Capshaw and Vince Vaughn. Her next big screen appearance came with “The Love Letter” (1999), an ensemble romantic comedy starring and produced by her mother. A small role in this feature, which did little business at the box office and impressed few critics, did little to further her career. She broke away from family projects with a part in the independent feature “Denial”, which debuted on Cinemax in 1998.
Capshaw made her TV debut with a guest role on ABC’s short-lived police series “High Incident”, and guested on a 1999 episode of “ER” (NBC) before landing a regular role on the ABC sitcom “Odd Man Out”. This starring role would keep her in the public eye and establish her name and reputation apart from those of her famous relatives. On the series, Capshaw played a booker at a modeling agency who shares a home with her older sister Julia (Markie Post) and Julia’s son and three daughters. The Brown-educated actress has studied at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she performed in the company’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, as well as appearing onstage in “The Cherry Orchard” and “The Grapes of Wrath” at Harvard-Westlake High School and “Arcadia” at Brown University.
- Born:
on 08/09/76 in Columbia, Missouri
- Job Titles:
Actor
Family
- Father: Robert Capshaw. met Kate Capshaw when he was principal of the school at which she was teaching; divorced c. 1978
- Grandfather: maternal grandfather
- Grandmother: maternal grandmother
- Half-brother: Sawyer Spielberg. born on May 10, 1992; son of Spielberg and Kate Capshaw
- Half-brother: Theo Spielberg. born c. 1988; African-American; adopted son of Spielberg and Kate Capshaw
- Half-sister: Destry Allyn Spielberg. born on December 1, 1996; daughter of Spielberg and Kate Capshaw
- Half-sister: Mikeala George Spielberg. born on February 28, 1996; adopted daughter of Spielberg and Kate Capshaw
- Half-sister: Sasha Spielberg. born in June 1990; daughter of Spielberg and Kate Capshaw
- Mother: Kate Capshaw. divorced from Capshaw’s father c. 1978; later married Steven Spielberg
- Step-brother: Max Spielberg. born in June 1985, son of Spielberg and Amy Irving
- Step-father: Steven Spielberg. married Kate Capshaw on October 12, 1991
Education
- Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, English literature, BA, 1998
- Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, England
- Harvard-Westlake High School, Los Angeles, California
Milestones
- 1978 Moved with family to New York at age two (date approximate)
- 1990 Discovered an interest in acting at age 14; went on to perform in high school productions of “The Cherry Orchard”, “The Grapes of Wrath” and “Tea & Sympathy” (date approximate)
- 1993 Had first screen credit as an intern for her stepfather’s acclaimed Holocaust film “Schindler’s List”
- 1996 Made TV debut with a guest starring role on ABC’s short lived police adventure series “High Incident”, executive produced by Spielberg
- 1997 Made big screen debut in “The Locusts”, co-starring her mother
- 1998 Was featured in “Denial”, an independent comedy screened at festivals and aired on Cinemax
- 1999 Was a regular on the ABC comedy series “Odd Man Out”
- 1999 Appeared in “The Love Letter”, starring Kate Capshaw
- 1999 Guest starred on an episode of NBC’s hit medical drama “ER”
- Relocated with mother to California
