Jennie Garth Movies
One of the stars of Fox's long-running prime-time teen show
Beverly Hills, 90210,
Jennie Garth also branched out into made-for-TV films and B-movies. Born in Urbana, Illinois, and raised on a farm until her family relocated to Arizona, Garth studied dance and worked as a model before moving to L.A. at age 16 to pursue acting. She was cast in the short-lived series
A Brand New Life (1989) before landing the star-making role of blonde Beverly Hills princess Kelly Taylor on
Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1990. With Kelly enduring numerous nighttime drama catastrophes while aging from spoiled teen vixen to grounded 25-year-old, Garth stayed with the show for its entire ten-year run. Bolstering her TV series fame with TV movies, beginning with the adaptation of the
Danielle Steele romance
Star (1993), Garth also played the eponymous abused wife in
Lies of the Heart: The Story of Laurie Kellogg (1994), a serial killer target in
Falling for You (1995), and executive-produced and starred in the teen psychiatric drama
Without Consent (1994). After the B-thrillers
Power 98 (1996) and
My Brother's War (1997), Garth focused more exclusively on the last several seasons of
90210 and starting a family with actor-husband
Peter Facinelli, whom she met while filming
An Unfinished Affair (1996). In 2002, Garth was cast in her own series, playing big sister to Amanda Bynes in the WB series What I Like About You, which found Garth's character caring for the teenager in their parents' absence. She stayed with the series for four years until 2007, when she was cast as a mom confronted with the possibility of HIV becoming a part of her family life in Girl, Positive. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide