Jordana Spiro - Columbia University, Family and Facts

Jordana Spiro was born on November 12, 1977 to a Jewish family in New York City. Her father’s ancestors were from Russia, Belgium, and Germany, while her mother has French, Irish, and English ancestry.

She grew up with her brother and three sisters. She played chess when she was a kid and participated in national-level tournaments.

She studied acting at the Circle in the Square Theater School. She also studied acting at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London for a brief period. After completing her studies, she moved to Los Angeles and received training at the Odyssey Theater. Later on, she did the MFA Program in Filmmaking at Columbia University.

Jordana Spiro made her film debut by playing the role of Catherine Reece in the 1999 film, ‘From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter’, a direct-to-DVD prequel to the film ‘From Dusk till Dawn’. Prior to this she had appeared in guest roles in a few television productions.

In 1999, she also appeared in ‘Undressed’, an American anthology TV series, aired on MTV from July 1999 to September 2002. In 2003, she landed a role on the thriller film ‘Playas Ball’, written and directed by Jennifer Harper.

In 2005, she got prominence for her role of Sherry in the big-screen romantic comedy ‘Must Love Dogs’. In 2006, she starred in the TBS original comedy series ‘My Boys’, an American television sitcom, where she played a sports columnist in Chicago. Unfortunately, the show was canceled on September 14, 2010 after four seasons.

In 2009, she was featured in the comedy ‘The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard’, directed by Neal Brennan, and written by Andy Stock and Rick Stempson. Originally titled ‘The Goods: The Don Ready Story’, the film was released on August 14, 2009 in the US. A DVD version was also released. The film received negative reviews from critics.

In 2010, she was scheduled to appear in the television series ‘Love Bites’, but dropped out of the role due to other contractual obligations. She then starred in the thriller, ‘Trespass’, along with Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman and played Rachael Miller on the TV series ‘Harry's Law’ in 2011.

In 2012, Jordana Spiro shot to fame with her role in “The Mob Doctor’, an American television drama aired on Fox TV from September 17, 2012 to January 7, 2013. The series, created by Josh Berman and Rob Wright, was based on the book ‘Dottore: The Double Life of a Mafia Doctor’ by Ron Felber. Jordana played the role of surgeon Grace Devlin, who becomes the doctor-on-call to the Chicago mafia in order to pay back her brother's debt and save his life.

She starred in ‘The Good Wife’, a legal drama, aired on CBS in 2013. She played the recurring role of Jenna, a tough, funny and smart police detective who is not opposed to mix business with pleasure, and sometimes crosses professional boundaries to gather information.

She also played guest roles on shows like ‘CSI: NY’, ‘City Guys’, ‘Out of Practice’, ‘Kitchen Confidential’, ‘Cold Case’ and ‘JAG’.

Jordana Spiro has directed and produced a number of short films and documentaries. Her short film ‘Skin’ captured a simple love story where a young taxidermist longs to connect with the girl of his fantasy, but instead ends up doing something drastic. Although Jordana was relatively new to directing when she made this film, she received the Women In Film/CalmDown Productions Grant for the film, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival and went on to play at SXSW, AFI, Palm Springs.

In 2014, Sundance appointed her at their Screenwriters’ Lab and she proceeded to write her debut feature script named ‘Night Comes On.’ In April 2014, she began filming in Philadelphia. The movie is slated to be released in 2018. The film, supported by the Sundance Film Institute and the NYS Council of the Arts, tells the story of two young sisters trying to find their way in the world without their parents. Although they face many obstacles and heartbreaks, the bonds of sisterhood and the girls' strength of spirit prevail.

In 2015, she played the lead role in ‘The Wilding’, a supernatural two-hour drama, aired on USA Network. She portrayed Margaret Hayes, a psychiatrist whose teenage daughter has been diagnosed with a delusional disorder that she is unable to cure. She also played a recurring role on NBC’s hit thriller drama ‘Blindspot’.

In 2017, she played Rachel Garrison in ‘Ozark,’ a crime drama thriller web-television series created by Bill Dubuque and produced by Media Rights Capital.

Jordana Spiro is best known for her performances in the popular series ‘My Boys’, the hit series ‘The Good Wife’, and the Fox series ‘The Mob Doctor.’Her directorial debut short film ‘Skin’ was not only highly appreciated by critics, but also earned her several awards and nominations. The film made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Critics applauded the film as “beautiful, emotionally charged yet delicate film”.

In 2007, Jordana Spiro won the Gracie Allen Award in the category Outstanding Female Lead in a Comedy Series for ‘My Boys’.

In 2013, she won the Horizon Award at the 24fps International Short Film Festival, in the category Outstanding Student Film for her short fim ‘Skin’. She also bagged the Festival Award at Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles, for ‘Skin’s’ direction. The film also earned her a Grand Jury Prize nomination at AFI Fest, and Festival Prize nomination at Cucalorus Film Festival.

Jordana Spiro is married to Matthew Spitzer. Other details about her family life are not available to the media.

She is passionate about traveling, and taught English for three months in a village in Tanzania in 2005. "I'm in awe of the AIDS workers in Africa who teach there, year in and year out. That experience changed my life," Jordana said in an interview.