Biography
Jenny Lewis first found fame as a child star in "Troop Beverly Hills" (1989) and "The Wizard" (1989) before forging an acclaimed music career as a member of indie outfit Rilo Kiley and highly collaborative solo artist. Born in Las Vegas, NV in 1976 to a singer mother and harmonicist father, Jenny Lewis appeared in numerous commercials as a youngster and after making her acting debut in the pilot episode of "Baby Makes Five" (ABC, 1983), was cast as Lucille Ball's granddaughter Becky in another short-lived sitcom, "Life with Lucy" (ABC, 1986). Lewis went on to guest on prime-time hits "The Golden Girls" (NBC, 1985-1992) and "Growing Pains" (ABC, 1985-1992), appear in multiple TV movies and play a matchmaking baseball fan in big screen comedy "Trading Hearts" (1988). But her best remembered performances came opposite Fred Savage in gaming cult classic "The Wizard" (1989) and as Shelley Long's daughter Hannah in summer camp comedy "Troop Beverly Hills" (1989). Lewis continued to act into her early twenties, landing the recurring roles of Neala in legal drama "Shannon's Deal" (NBC, 1990-91) and Katie Monahan in cross-cultural sitcom "Brooklyn Bridge" (CBS, 1991-93), appearing alongside a young Angelina Jolie in coming-of-age "Foxfire" (1996), Ryan Phillippe in indie drama "Little Boy Blue" (1997) and Reese Witherspoon in social satire "Pleasantville" (1998), and starring in the belatedly released black-and-white diner dramedy "Don's Plum" (2001). The latter was soundtracked by singer/guitarist Blake Sennett, who alongside drummer Dave Rock and bassist Pierre de Reeder would later join frontwoman Lewis in the indie-folk outfit Rilo Kiley. The group went on to enjoy cult success with 2001 debut Take Offs and Landing, 2002 sophomore effort The Execution of All Things and 2004 follow-up More Adventurous, eventually reaching the US Top 40 in 2007 with their swansong Under the Blacklight. By this point Lewis had already teamed up with the Watson Twins to record 2006 solo debut, Rabbit Fur Coat, and following Rilo Kiley's split continued to explore other musical avenues. She embraced the sounds of Americana on 2008's Acid Tongue, joined forces with then-boyfriend Johnathan Rice under the guise of Jenny and Johnny on 2010's I'm Having Fun Now and co-composed the scores for indie dramas "Very Good Girls" (2013) and "Song One" (2014). After reaching the US Top 10 for the first time with the adult-oriented rock of 2014's The Voyager, Lewis teamed up with The Like's Tennessee Thomas and Au Revoir Simone's Erika Forster to form supergroup Nice as F***, who released their eponymous debut album in 2016. Featuring contributions from Beck, Ryan Adams and Ringo Starr, Lewis' fourth solo effort, On the Line, arrived in 2019.
