Joey Lauren Adams

Joey Lauren Adams (born January 9, 1968) is an American actress who has appeared in more than thirty films. She is known for her distinctive, raspy voice and for her roles in Bio-Dome as well as Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse films, particularly Mallrats and Chasing Amy, with the latter giving her a Golden Globe for Best Actress nomination. --- Adams was born in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Her father was a lumber yard owner. Adams grew up the youngest of three children in the Overbrook neighborhood in Sherwood, Arkansas. She graduated from North Little Rock Northeast High School in 1986. She announced her intention to pursue acting after an exchange-student year in Australia. She moved to Hollywood in 1988, but currently lives in Oxford, Mississippi. She began her film career in 1977 with a small part in Exorcist II: The Heretic. In 1991, she appeared in the 100th episode of Married... with Children entitled "Top of the Heap" and subsequently starred in its short lived spinoff. In 1993, Adams landed her first major film role as Simone in Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused. The same year, she appeared in the Saturday Night Live spinoff film Coneheads as one of Connie Conehead's friends. Two years later, Adams appeared in Mallrats, written and directed by Kevin Smith. The two started dating during the film's post-production, and their relationship provided the inspiration for Smith's next film. Meanwhile, in 1996, while Smith was finalizing the script for Chasing Amy, she was cast for a role in the slapstick comedy Bio-Dome, which was directed by Jason Bloom. Adams played the role of Monique, girlfriend to Bud Macintosh (Pauly Shore). In 1997's Chasing Amy, Smith cast Adams in the lead role of Alyssa Jones, a lesbian who falls in love with a man, played by Ben Affleck. Later, Smith would describe Chasing Amy as a "sort of penance/valentine" and a "thank-you homage" to Adams. In addition to her acting work on the film, Adams wrote and performed the song "Alive" for the film's soundtrack. Adams' performance in Chasing Amy earned her both the 1997 Chicago Film Critics Award and Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Most Promising Actress, and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress-Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. From there, Adams was originally slated to play the female lead in Smith's next film, 1999's Dogma, but Linda Fiorentino ultimately got the part. However, she would later make brief appearances in two other Smith projects: the 2001 film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and the 2004 animated short Clerks: The Lost Scene, featured on the Clerks X DVD. In both of these appearances, Adams reprised the role of Alyssa Jones.