Movies

Alexandra Elizabeth Sheedy (born June 13, 1962) is an American actress. Following her film debut in 1983's Bad Boys, she became known as one of the Brat Pack group of actors and starred in WarGames (1983), The Breakfast Club (1985) and Short Circuit (1986). For her performance in Lisa Cholodenko's High Art (1998), Sheedy won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead.

Early life
Alexandra Elizabeth Sheedy was born in New York City on June 13, 1962, and has two siblings, brother Patrick and sister Meghan. Her mother, Charlotte (née Baum), is a writer and press agent who was involved in women's and civil rights movements, and her father, John J. Sheedy Jr., is a Manhattan advertising executive. Sheedy's mother is Eastern European Jewish, whereas her father is of Irish Catholic background. Her maternal grandmother was from Odessa, Ukraine. Her parents divorced in 1971.

She attended the Bank Street School for Children, followed by Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School in New York City, graduating in 1980. She started dancing with the American Ballet Theatre at age six and was planning to make it a full-time career. She gave up dance in favor of acting full time, however, and then started studying acting with acting teacher Harold Guskin. At age 12 she wrote a book, She Was Nice to Mice. The book was published by McGraw-Hill Education and became a best-seller. On June 19, 1975, she appeared on the game show To Tell the Truth.

At age 18, Sheedy relocated to Los Angeles, California, where she enrolled in the drama department at the University of Southern California. Sheedy concurrently began her acting career and intermittently completed three years' worth of courses toward a BFA degree in acting.