Celebrity Nooz: Nancy McKeon

Nancy McKeon (Actress) as Jo - The Facts of Life

Updated: 11/16/2007

Name: Nancy McKeon

Born: April 4, 1966 in Westbury, New York

Claim To Fame: I would say 99 out of 100 people know Nancy for her role as Jo in 'The Facts of Life.' How she got the role is after producers of the show saw her playing a street-wise girl in a pilot called "Dusty", in 'Starsky & Hutch' they decided to sign her to play Jo .

Family Life: Marc Andrus (8 June 2003 - present) 2 children
Brother is Philip McKeon who played Tommy on the TV show 'Alice'.

Dated:
Michael J. Fox (actor, mid 1980s)
Michael Damian (actor, late 1980s)
Luc Robitaille (hockey player, early 1990s)

Info: Nancy began modeling baby clothes for the Sears catalogue at the age of two and she and her brother did over sixty-five commercials in seven years. She appeared briefly on the soap operas "The Secret Storm", and "Another World". When her brother, Philip McKeon won a role on the TV series, "Alice", the family moved to Los Angeles.

Trivia: Declined to participate in 'The Facts of Life Reunion' (2001) because, "I'm just not a fan of that kind of thing. I would not watch it, so why would I be IN it? It's just never the same." She did, however, offer to direct a movie which would have dealt with the girls reuniting after Jo's death.

Directed a short film and an episode of her series, "The Division".

Was considered for the part of Monica on "Friends" (1994). The role later went to Courteney Cox.

A devout Roman Catholic, Nancy, with her parents, was granted a private audience with Pope John Paul II while she was on 'The Facts of Life.'

Where Are They Now: Since 'Facts of Life', she starred in many made-for-TV movies, most notably A Cry for Help: The Tracey Thurman Story, in which she portrays an abuse victim. She starred in her own series, Can't Hurry Love, in 1995, which lasted only one season, and which had Mariska Hargitay in a comic role, a few years before Law and Order SVU. In 1997, she starred in another failed sitcom with Jean Smart titled Style and Substance. Nancy played Inspector Jinny Exstead on the Lifetime police drama The Division from 2001 to 2004. Her pregnancy was incorporated into the storyline of the last year of the series. Previously, she starred in the movie The Wrong
Woman, as a woman framed for killing her boss. Recently she starred in the film Comfort and Joy.

She married key grip Marc Andrus in June 2003, and in March 2004 gave birth to their daughter, Aurora. She had a second baby, a boy, at the end of December 2006.

Word is she officially retired from acting and is living in Austin, Texas with her husband Marc Andrus and is concentrating on raising her 2 kids the traditional way and being a housewife.

But... she just turned up, last week, on the TV show 'Without A Trace' So maybe she'll take the occasional role.

Write To Nancy McKeon:
Nancy McKeon
PO Box 6778
Burbank, CA 91510

Videos: Facts of Life - Jo Punches Blair For God
Facts of Life - Double Standard

View other 'Where Are They Now' celebrities

Read the latest issue of Celebrity Nooz

Subscribe!