Jill Hennessy on AllMovie

From busking to blockbusters to small-screen crime drama, worldly actress Jill Hennessey has proven herself as an actress with talent to spare. As easy as it may be to see only her dark beauty, don't mistake the multilingual Hennessey as a one trick pony; she's also established herself as a successful restaurateur and a talented musician. Hennessey was born three minutes after her identical twin sister, Jacqueline, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in November of 1969. Her parents divorced when she was only a young girl, and her grandmother played a large part in raising her and her sister. It was during this time that young Hennessey took up cooking in order to help care for her family, and her passion for food would eventually lead her to open Hennessey's Tavern in Northvale, NJ, after establishing herself as an actress. Hennessey moved to New York following her graduation from Ontario's Grand River Collegiate, and for a time, she busked in the N.Y.C. subway, singing and playing the guitar for money. Though her career in entertainment may not have taken off quickly, it was only a matter of time before she found success. In 1988, both Hennessey and her sister got their first breaks with small roles in director David Cronenberg's acclaimed chiller Dead Ringers. In the following few years, she would repeatedly turn up on the small screen in Friday the 13th: The Series and The Hitchhiker.

A three-year stint on television's popular Law & Order as ADA Claire Kincaid gained the rising starlet much exposure, and indie credit came with a supporting role in director Mary Harron's I Shot Andy Warhol. After roles in A Smile Like Yours and Most Wanted made 1997 a memorable year for her, Hennessey took the lead opposite pop star-turned-actor Jon Bon Jovi in the 1998 drama Row Your Boat. Subsequent films such as Komodo may have done little to advance Hennessey's career as a serious thespian, but she expanded into writing and directing with her all-star comedy The Acting Class in 2000. With more roles coming her way every day, Hennessey took on the daunting task of portraying none other that Jackie Kennedy in the 2001 miniseries Jackie, Ethel, Joan: The Women of Camelot. Later that year she took the lead role in the small-screen drama Crossing Jordan, and it seemed as if she had finally arrived when the show proved to be a success. In 2002, Hennessey joined an impressive cast for the romantic comedy feature Pipe Dream.