Ally Sheedy

1975–1980: She Was Nice to Mice

Sheedy's first literary piece was published in Ms. when she was twelve.^[15] She wrote freelance reviews of kids' books for The New York Times, Ms. and The Village Voice.^[a]

Sheedy often wrote short stories in her youth. She enjoyed novels with animal protagonists such as Stuart Little (1945), and had an interest in the Tudors sparked by the film Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), which led to her writing a story about a mouse living at the court of Queen Elizabeth I. She read two chapters to her mother's friend, Joyce Johnson, who brought it to McGraw Hill Education as a possible project.^[18][19] In 1975, McGraw Hill published the story as a novel titled She Was Nice to Mice: The Other Side of Elizabeth I's Character Never Before Revealed by Previous Historians.^[b] It was illustrated by Sheedy's friend Jessica Ann Levy.^[2] The novel was well-received^[1] and became a best-seller.^[c]

Sheedy promoted the novel on the game show To Tell the Truth^[19][24] and the talk show The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.^[25] An audiobook record, narrated by Sheedy, was released in 1976 on the Caedmon label.^[26] She earned enough royalties to put herself through college.^[25]

1981–1986: Early career and Brat Pack

Sheedy began a career in acting, despite parental disapproval;^[23] she started acting in commercials at the age of 15.^{[25][17][27][d]} At age 18, she relocated to Los Angeles, where she enrolled at the University of Southern California. Sheedy concurrently began her acting career and intermittently completed three years' worth of courses toward a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama.^[12][17][30]

Sheedy's first dramatic television role was in the CBS Afternoon Playhouse episode "I Think I'm Having a Baby".^{[31][better source needed]} Throughout the early 1980s she appeared in the television movies The Best Little Girl in the World (1981)^[32] and The Violation of Sarah McDavid (1981),^[33] and in guest roles on the drama series Chicago Story (1982),^[34] St. Elsewhere (1982)^[35] and Hill Street Blues (1983).^[36]

Sheedy rose to fame with a string of major film roles.^[6][37] She made her theatrical acting debut in the crime drama film Bad Boys (1983),^[5][37] in which she played the girlfriend of Sean Penn's character.^[11] The same year, she starred alongside Matthew Broderick in the science fiction film WarGames,^[38] for which she was nominated for her first Saturn Award for Best Actress^{[citation needed]} and for the Youth in Film Award for Best Young Actress Starring in a Motion Picture.^[39] She co-starred with Rob Lowe in Oxford Blues (1984).^[40]

In 1985, Sheedy became associated with the "Brat Pack", an informal group of young actors who frequently co-starred in teen-oriented films. Reporter David Blum used the term—a play on the "Rat Pack"—to refer to Sheedy's past co-stars Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe and Judd Nelson in the New York article "Hollywood's Brat Pack", but the media subsequently included Sheedy along with actors Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall.^[17][41][42] She starred alongside various Brat Pack members in The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire, both 1985 coming-of-age films with ensemble casts.^[42][43] Sheedy disliked the label, calling it in 1986 "snotty"^[25] and "condescending and sort of dismissive in a way",^[17] and said the article's publication caused the social group to splinter.^[44][45]

In Twice in a Lifetime (1985), she played the daughter of Gene Hackman's character.^[46][47] Sheedy appeared with Judd Nelson in Blue City (1986), which was poorly reviewed.^[25][48] Her first starring film role was in the science fiction comedy film Short Circuit (1986), in which her character Stephanie befriends an escaped robot.^[17][25]

1987–1998: Career downturn, High Art

Sheedy had lead roles in the films Maid to Order (1987) and Heart of Dixie (1989),^[49][50] both commercial flops.^[6] Sheedy was told that her perceived lack of sex appeal was to blame for her stalling career,^[6][30] and she was encouraged by both her management team and film producers to alter her appearance and public persona.^[e] Sheedy reflected in 1998 that "I did not do the things I was supposed to do to make myself into a movie star. Part of that is because it went against my ethics, and part of it was I realized at a certain point that being a movie star isn’t what I wanted to be."^[6]

Sheedy starred in the horror film Fear (1990) as a psychic.^[52] She also featured in the romantic comedy films Betsy's Wedding (1990)^[53] and Only the Lonely (1991).^[54] She made a cameo appearance in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) as an airline attendant.^[55] Her performances in Fear and Man's Best Friend (1993)^[56][57] earned her two more Saturn Award nominations for Best Actress.^{[citation needed]} Sheedy's book of poetry, Yesterday I Saw the Sun, was published by Summit Books in 1991. It was not critically well-reviewed.^[1][27] In 1997, Sheedy was fired by her talent agency William Morris.^[1][12][44] She returned to New York and spent a decade studying with acting teacher Harold Guskin.^[f]

Sheedy starred in the independent romantic drama film High Art (1998) as Lucy Berliner, a heroin-addicted lesbian photographer.^[11][51] Sheedy was actively searching for an "interesting" role such as Lucy,^[10][44] and impulsively flew to meet writer-director Lisa Cholodenko after reading High Art's script.^[1][21][51] Her performance was recognized with awards from the Independent Spirit Awards,^[58] Los Angeles Film Critics Association,^[59] and National Society of Film Critics.^[60] Critics noted that the role contrasted the "girl-next-door" image Sheedy cultivated in the early 80s.^[11][45] Sheedy stated in 2022 that High Art was her favourite film in her filmography.^[37] Critic Guy Lodge, writing for The Guardian in 2024, called it her best performance.^[61]

1999–present: Later career

In September 1999, Sheedy took over the titular role in the off-Broadway production of the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. She was the first woman to play the part of the transsexual Hedwig, but her run ended two months early amid "mixed" reviews.^[5][62][63] That same year, she starred in the ensemble cast of the independent film Sugar Town.^[64][65] She also made a cameo appearance in the film adaptation of the play Advice from a Caterpillar, having starred in the show's 1991 off-Broadway production.^[66]

Sheedy was reunited with Breakfast Club co-star Anthony Michael Hall when she guest starred on the second season of the television series The Dead Zone (2003).^[67] Sheedy appeared in the 2007 episode "Leapin' Lizards" of C.S.I., in which she played a woman who murdered her boyfriend's wife while mixed up in a cult. In 2008, Sheedy was introduced as the character Sarah in the ABC Family show Kyle XY.^{[citation needed]}

From 2009 to 2013, she played the role of serial killer Mr. Yang on the USA Network detective series Psych. Yang was originally intended to only appear in the series' third season, but Sheedy went on to reprise the role three more times over the following four seasons.^[68][69][70] The character was planned to return in Psych: The Movie (2017), but due to budget issues this was dropped.^[71]

Sheedy portrayed a schoolteacher in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016).^[72] Sheedy played Carol Fink, a single mother to an alcoholic daughter, in the Freeform series Single Drunk Female (2022–2023).^[g] In June 2024, Deadline reported that Sony was considering producing a sequel to St. Elmo’s Fire with the original cast, including Sheedy.^[77]

Sheedy became a volunteer teacher at LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts.^[30][78][79] Since 2022, she has been a professor in the theater department at the City College of New York.^[37][73][80] Sheedy also edits books under a pseudonym.^[37] In January 2026, it was announced that Sheedy had joined the City College of New York’s first Film Advisory Board.^[80]