Joey Lauren Adams (born January 9, 1968) is an American actress and director. Adams starred in Chasing Amy, for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and played smaller roles in other Kevin Smith View Askewniverse films.
Career
Adams was born to Karen Bonner and Lyle Adams in North Little Rock, Arkansas. She has two older siblings and grew up going to Park Hill Baptist Church in North Little Rock. In addition to acting in the film, Adams wrote and performed the song "Alive" for the film's soundtrack. Kelly Adams, an older sister of Joey's, was her assistant on the set of Chasing Amy. Their mother, Karen Bonner, insisted that Joey live in San Diego with a friend of the family's at first, before moving to Los Angeles. However, she would later make brief appearances in two other Smith projects: the 2001 film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and the 2004 animated short Clerks: The Lost Scene, featured on the Clerks X DVD. In both of these appearances, Adams reprises the role of Alyssa Jones. Her post-Smith projects included playing a spunky veterinarian's assistant who falls in love with a single father (Vince Vaughn) in 1998's A Cool, Dry Place. The next year, Adams appeared in her first big-budget Hollywood release, playing Adam Sandler's love interest in the successful comedy Big Daddy. She then appeared in many smaller films, including Beautiful and In the Shadows. In 2005, she had a guest role in an episode of the TV series Veronica Mars.
In 2006, Adams released her directorial debut film, Come Early Morning, starring Ashley Judd, Jeffrey Donovan, Diane Ladd, Tim Blake Nelson and Laura Prepon. The film, shot on location in Little Rock, Arkansas, was selected for the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Also in 2006, she along with Lian Lunson and Nicole Holofcener, was awarded the Women in Film Dorothy Arzner Directors Award. On November 24, 2009, Interscope Records released Adams' directorial debut for a music video entitled "Belle of the Boulevard" by Dashboard Confessional. Adams returned to TV in March 2010, on the Showtime series The United States of Tara. She appeared in six episodes as Pammy, a barmaid who falls for Buck, one of the title character's alternate personalities.
Adams is known for her distinctive voice which one film critic referred to as that of a "sex-kitten-on-helium". Regarding her voice, Adams commented, "It's not a normal voice. It doesn't fit into people's preconceptions about what a woman's voice should sound like. My mom doesn't think I have an unusual voice, though. I'm sure it's helped me get some roles. But Chasing Amy I almost didn't get. There was concern the voice would grate on some people, which some critics said it did." Another film critic said that whether viewers loved it or hated it, her voice had "the potential to hypnotize."
Personal life
Adams was born in North Little Rock, Arkansas, the youngest of three children. Her father was a lumber yard owner.
Adams and Brian Vilim, a cinematographer, married at Adams' friends' farm in Maumelle, Arkansas in 2014.
Filmography
{| class="wikitable"
|+Key
| style="background:#FFFFCC;"|
| Denotes productions that have not yet been released
|}
Film
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
|1993
|Coneheads
|Christina
|
|-
|1993
|Dazed and Confused
|Simone Kerr
|
|-
|1993
|'
|Louanne Winters
|
|-
|1993
|'
|Shirley
|
|-
|1994
|Sleep with Me
|Lauren
|
|-
|1994
|S.F.W.
|Monica Dice
|
|-
|1995
|Mallrats
|Gwen Turner
|
|-
|1996
|Bio-Dome
|Monique
|
|-
|1996
|Drawing Flies
|Hippy Chick
|
|-
|1996
|Michael
|Anita
|
|-
|1997
|Chasing Amy
|Alyssa Jones
|Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress<br/>Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy<br/>Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss <small>(with Carmen Llywelyn)</small><br/>Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance
|-
|1998
|'
|Beth Ward
|
|-
|1999
|Big Daddy
|Layla Maloney
|Nominated—Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actress – Comedy
|-
|2000
|Bruno
|Donna Marie
|
|-
|2000
|Beautiful
|Ruby
|
|-
|2001
|Harvard Man
|Chesney Cort
|
|-
|2001
|Dr. Dolittle 2
|Squirrel
|Voice
|-
|2001
|Reaching Normal
|Sarah
|
|-
|2001
|In the Shadows
|Clarissa Huston
|
|-
|2001
|Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
|Alyssa Jones
|Cameo
|-
|2002
|Grand Champion
|Hallie
|
|-
|2002
|Beeper
|Inspector Julia Hyde
|
|-
|2003
|'
|Grace
|
|-
|2004
|'
|Daphne
|
|-
|2004
|Clerks: The Lost Scene
|Alyssa
|Only featured in the 2004 Special Edition
|-
|2006
|'
|Addie Jones
|
|-
|2007
|Bunny Whipped
|Ann
|
|-
|2008
|Trucker
|Jenny Bell
|
|-
|2009
|ExTerminators
|Kim
|
|-
|2010
|Endure
|Sirena Lane
|
|-
|2011
|Big Swim
|The Egg
|
|-
|2011
|Apart
|Dr. Jane Sheppard
|
|-
|2012
|'
|Mom
|Short film
|-
|2012
|Mulberry Stains
|Savannah
|
|-
|2012
|Art Machine
|Prudence
|
|-
|2013
|Blue Caprice
|Jamie
|
|-
|2013
|'
|Renae Logan
|
|-
|2013
|She Loves Me Not
|Beth
|
|-
|2014
|Making the Rules
|Becca
|
|-
|2014
|Sequoia
|Bev
|
|-
|2014
|Valley Inn
|Althea
|
|-
|2014
|Animal
|Vicky
|
|-
|2014
|All the Birds Have Flown South
|Tonya
|
|-
| 2019
| Jay and Silent Bob Reboot
| Alyssa Jones
|
|-
| 2022
| Tankhouse
| Deirdra
|
|-
| 2024
| Oak
| Mrs. Chase
|
|-
| 2024
| Greedy People
| Bobette
|
|-
| 2026
|
| Rebecca
|
|-
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
|1991
|Top of the Heap
|Mona Mullins
|7 episodes
|-
|1991
|Married... with Children
|Mona Mullins
|Episode: "Top of the Heap"
|-
|1991
|Married... with Children
|Cousin Effie
|Episode: "Buck Has a Belly Ache"
|-
|1992
|Vinnie & Bobby
|Mona Mullins
|7 episodes
|-
|1992
|CBS Schoolbreak Special
|Dianne
|Episode: "Words Up!"
|-
|1993
|Married... with Children
|Janie
|Episode: "The Wedding Show"
|-
|1995
|Love & War
|Vicky
|Episode: "Atlantic City"
|-
|1995
|Out of Order
|Whitney
|Episode: "Strange Habit"
|-
|1995
|Double Rush
|Dee Dee
|Episode: "Slamming Into a Car Isn't Good"
|-
|1996
|Second Noah
|Darby
|5 episodes
|-
|1999
|Hercules
|Electra
|Voice, episode: "Hercules and the Complex Electra"
|-
|2003
|As Told by Ginger
|Thea Mipson
|Episode: "Far from Home"
|-
|2003–04
|Stripperella
|Catt
|Voice, 2 episodes
|-
|2005
|What's New, Scooby-Doo?
|Rachel
|Voice, episode: "A Scooby-Doo Valentine"
|-
|2005
|Veronica Mars
|Geena Stafford
|Episode: "Weapons of Class Destruction"
|-
|2009–10
|Party Down
|Diandra Stiltskin
|2 episodes
|-
|2010
|Tough Trade
|Shawnelle
|Television film
|-
|2010
|United States of Tara
|Pammy
|6 episodes
|-
|2010
|Frenemies
|Joy Hardwick
|Unsold TV pilot
|-
|2012
|Supermoms
|Kelly
|Unsold TV pilot
|-
|2013–14
|Switched at Birth
|Jeniece Papagus
|4 episodes
|-
|2015
|Grey's Anatomy
|Dr. Tracy McConnell
|Episode: "Sledgehammer"
|-
|2016–17
|Still the King
|Debbie Lynn Cooke
|26 episodes
|-
|2022
|The L Word: Generation Q
|Taylor
|3 episodes
|}