Gina Gershon

Gina L. Gershon was born on June 10, 1962, in Los Angeles, California, to Mickey Gershon, an interior decorator, and Stan Gershon, who worked in import-export and sales. She grew up in a Jewish family in the San Fernando Valley and attended Collier Street Elementary School and Woodland Hills Academy before enrolling at Beverly Hills High School, where she began acting at age 14. After graduating in 1980, she relocated to Boston to attend Emerson College, later transferring to New York University, where she earned a BFA in drama and psychology/philosophy in 1983.

Gershon trained at the Circle in the Square Professional Theater School in New York, working with David Mamet and later with Harold Guskin and Sandra Seacat. Her earliest professional stage work included productions of Camille and The Substance of Fire, and she became one of the founding members of the New York-based theater group Naked Angels. Her Broadway career spanned from 1998 to 2009 and encompassed three productions: the role of Sally Bowles in the revival of Cabaret, a turn in the revival of the sex farce Boeing-Boeing, and the role of Rosie Alvarez in the 2010 revival of Bye Bye Birdie at the Roundabout Theatre Company.

Her film career began with a small part in Pretty in Pink in 1986, which led to roles in Cocktail alongside Tom Cruise and Elisabeth Shue, and Red Heat, both released in 1988. She appeared in John Sayles's City of Hope in 1991 and in the action film Out for Justice that same year, playing Patti Madano opposite Steven Seagal and William Forsythe. Gershon gained significant attention with Showgirls in 1995 and Bound in 1996, in which she played Corky, an ex-con involved with a character portrayed by Jennifer Tilly. She co-starred with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage in Face/Off in 1997, and appeared in The Insider in 1999. Later film credits include Demonlover in 2002, P.S. I Love You in 2007, Five Minarets in New York in 2010, and Killer Joe in 2011, the latter directed by William Friedkin and co-starring Matthew McConaughey. She portrayed Donatella Versace in the Lifetime television film House of Versace in 2013.

On television, Gershon portrayed Nancy Barbato, Frank Sinatra's first wife, in the 1992 made-for-TV biopic Sinatra. She held a recurring role on Melrose Place as a prostitute working for a Heidi Fleiss-esque Hollywood madam, and later starred in the ABC detective series Snoops, created by David E. Kelley, which was cancelled after one season. Her television work also includes supporting roles on FX's Rescue Me and HBO's How to Make It in America, as well as guest appearances on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Ugly Betty, Psych, Glee, Empire, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Younger. Beginning in 2018, she took on the recurring role of Gladys Jones, Jughead's mother, on The CW drama Riverdale, and in 2020 she joined the cast of the NBC medical series New Amsterdam as Jeanie Bloom, mother of the character Lauren Bloom.

In voice work, Gershon voiced Six in the adult animated series Tripping the Rift, Catwoman in the 2007 animated series The Batman, and Langwidere in Lost in Oz from 2017 to 2018. She has also appeared in comedic online content, including videos for Funny or Die parodying Sarah Palin and Melania Trump, and portrayed Donald Trump in an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, an Off-Broadway production titled The 1st Annual Trump Family Special, and an episode of The Good Fight on CBS All Access.