Becky Ann Baker is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actress who is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Jean Weir on NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

's Emmy Award

Emmy Award

An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

-winning Freaks and Geeks

Freaks and Geeks

Freaks and Geeks is an American teen comedy-drama television series, created by Paul Feig and executive produced by Judd Apatow, that aired on NBC during the 1999–2000 television season...

.

Early life

Baker was born Becky Gelke in Fort Knox, Kentucky. She grew up as an "army brat," moving from base to base with her parents.

Career

Baker's film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 credits include Blue Steel

Blue Steel (1990 film)

Blue Steel is a 1990 action thriller film, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Ron Silver and Clancy Brown.-Plot:Megan Turner is a rookie New York City policewoman who shoots and kills a suspect with her police-issue .38 Special Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolver while he's...

, Jacob's Ladder

Jacob's Ladder (film)

Jacob's Ladder is a 1990 American psychological thriller/horror film directed by Adrian Lyne, based on a screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin.-Plot:Jacob Singer is a U.S. soldier deployed in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War...

, Lorenzo's Oil

Lorenzo's Oil

Lorenzo's Oil is a 1992 drama film directed by George Miller. It is based on a true story of Augusto and Michaela Odone, two parents in a relentless search for a cure for their son Lorenzo's adrenoleukodystrophy...

, Unstrung Heroes

Unstrung Heroes

Unstrung Heroes is a 1995 American comedy-drama film directed by Diane Keaton. The screenplay by Richard LaGravenese is based on a memoir by journalist Franz Lidz.-Plot synopsis:...

, Sabrina

Sabrina (1995 film)

Sabrina is a 1995 romantic comedy-drama film adapted by Barbara Benedek and David Rayfiel, based on the 1954 screenplay of the same name, which in turn was based upon a play titled Sabrina Fair....

, Ridley Scott

Ridley Scott

Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...

's White Squall

White Squall (film)

White Squall is a 1996 American drama feature film, directed by Ridley Scott.-Plot:The film is based on the fate of the brigantine Albatross, which sank on 2 May 1961, allegedly because of a white squall. The film relates the ill-fated school sailing trip led by Dr. Christopher B. Sheldon , whom...

, Men in Black

Men in Black (film)

Men in Black is a 1997 science fiction comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith and Vincent D'Onofrio. The film was based on the Men in Black comic book series by Lowell Cunningham, originally published by Marvel Comics. The film featured the creature effects...

, In & Out

In & Out

In & Out is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by Frank Oz and starring Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack, Matt Dillon, Tom Selleck, Debbie Reynolds, Bob Newhart, and Wilford Brimley. The screenplay was written by screenwriter Paul Rudnick...

, Woody Allen

Woody Allen

Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...

's Celebrity

Celebrity (film)

Celebrity is a 1998 comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. The screenplay focuses on the divergent paths a couple takes following their divorce.-Plot:...

, Sam Raimi

Sam Raimi

Samuel Marshall "Sam" Raimi is an American film director, producer, actor and writer. He is best known for directing cult horror films like the Evil Dead series, Darkman and Drag Me to Hell, as well as the blockbuster Spider-Man films and the producer of the successful TV series Hercules: The...

's A Simple Plan

A Simple Plan (film)

A Simple Plan is a 1998 drama film directed by Sam Raimi, based on the novel of the same name by Scott Smith, who also wrote the screenplay of the film. It was shot in Delano, Minnesota and Ashland and Saxon, Wisconsin. Billy Bob Thornton was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...

(for which she received a Blockbuster Entertainment Award nomination), Two Weeks Notice

Two Weeks Notice

Two Weeks Notice is a 2002 romantic comedy film starring Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock from Warner Bros. Pictures. The film was written and directed by Marc Lawrence. Upon release, the film received a successful box office run both in the United States and globally.-Plot:Lucy Kelson is a...

, Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg

Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...

's War of the Worlds

War of the Worlds (2005 film)

War of the Worlds is a 2005 American science fiction film adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel of the same name, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp. It is one of three film adaptations of War of the Worlds released that year, alongside The Asylum's version and...

, Stay

Stay (2005 film)

Stay is a 2005 American psychological thriller film directed by Marc Forster and written by David Benioff. It stars Ewan McGregor, Ryan Gosling, Bob Hoskins and Naomi Watts, with production by Regency and distribution by 20th Century Fox...

, The Night Listener

The Night Listener

The Night Listener may refer to*The Night Listener , a novel by Armistead Maupin*The Night Listener , a 2006 film starring Robin Williams and Toni Collette, based on the novel...

, Death of a President, and Spider-Man 3

Spider-Man 3

Spider-Man 3 is a 2007 American superhero film written and directed by Sam Raimi, with a screenplay by Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent. It is the third film in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man...

. In addition to Freaks & Geeks, Baker's television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 credits include Stephen King

Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...

's Storm of the Century

Storm of the Century

Storm of the Century, alternatively known as Stephen King's Storm of the Century, is a 1999 horror TV miniseries written by Stephen King and directed by Craig R. Baxley. Unlike many other King mini-series, Storm of the Century was not based upon a Stephen King novel - King wrote it as a screenplay...

and guest spots on L.A. Law

L.A. Law

L.A. Law is a US television legal drama that ran on NBC from September 15, 1986 to May 19, 1994. L.A. Law reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights,...

, Frasier

Frasier

Frasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...

, Star Trek: Voyager

Star Trek: Voyager

Star Trek: Voyager is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. Set in the 24th century from the year 2371 through 2378, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet vessel USS Voyager, which becomes stranded in the Delta Quadrant 70,000 light-years from Earth while...

, Sex & the City, Law & Order: SVU, Oz

Oz (TV series)

Oz is an American television drama series created by Tom Fontana, who also wrote or co-wrote all of the series' 56 episodes . It was the first one-hour dramatic television series to be produced by premium cable network HBO. Oz premiered on July 12, 1997 and ran for six seasons...

and All My Children

All My Children

All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...

.

An accomplished stage performer, Baker made her Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 debut in the 1981 production of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas", and received a Drama-Logue Award

Drama-Logue Award

The Drama-Logue Award was a theater award established in 1977, given by the publishers of Drama-Logue newspaper, a weekly west-coast theater trade publication. Winners were selected by the publication's theater critics, and would receive a certificate at an annual awards ceremony...

 in 1994 for her work in "Night and Her Stars". She is a founding member of New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

-based theatre company The Drama Dept.

In 2009, she appeared in the NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 series Kings

Kings (U.S. TV series)

Kings is an American television drama series which aired on NBC. The series' narrative is loosely based on the Biblical story of King David, but set in a kingdom that culturally and technologically resembles the present-day United States....

, playing the minor role of Jessie Shepherd, mother of protagonist

Protagonist

A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...

 David Shepherd. Her real-life husband, Dylan Baker

Dylan Baker

Dylan Baker is an American actor, known for playing supporting roles in both major studio and independent films.-Early life:...

, played antagonist

Antagonist

An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...

 William Cross in the series.

Personal life

Baker used her birth name, Becky Gelke, as her professional name until she married actor Dylan Baker

Dylan Baker

Dylan Baker is an American actor, known for playing supporting roles in both major studio and independent films.-Early life:...

 in 1990. They have one daughter (Willa, born 1993) and reside in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

External links