Dancer-turned-actress Stacy Edwards spent a decade in TV and B movies before her breakthrough in Neil LaBute's controversial In the Company of Men (1997). Air Force brat Edwards was raised around the world before a dance scholarship landed her in Chicago at age 18. She became a full-time actress when she joined TV's daytime drama Santa Barbara in 1986. Edwards spent the late '80s and early '90s guest-starring on such TV series as 21 Jump Street, and acting in TV movies, including Dinner at Eight (1989). Edwards added several B-flicks, including Relentless 3 (1993), to her credits as well.
Edwards proved her strength as an actress beyond her pretty face in 1997. As the deaf victim of a yuppie seduction scheme in In the Company of Men, Edwards' finely shaded performance was the only emotional oasis in LaBute's caustic treatise on male cruelty. Edwards followed her critically lauded turn with a role on CBS' Chicago Hope. Along with playing Chicago Hope's Dr. Caterra from 1997 to 1999, Edwards burnished her film resumé with a starring role as Houdini's wife in the TV biopic Houdini (1998), as well as featured parts in political film à clef Primary Colors (1998) and James Toback's incendiary ensemble film on race and pop culture Black and White (1999). Maintaining her film career after Chicago Hope, Edwards emerged unscathed from Madonna's failed vehicle The Next Best Thing (2000) and joined the cast of action director Renny Harlin's racecar drama Driven (2001).
