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.
