Jennifer Grey is an American actress. She began acting in the 1984 picture Reckless and had a breakthrough in the teen comedy flick Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Grey had her breakthrough as “Baby” Houseman in “Dirty Dancing,” a film about an awkward teenager who falls in love with a hunky dance instructor (played by Patrick Swayze) during a vacation at Kellerman’s in the Catskills.
With a $6 million budget, the film grossed $214 million at the box office and “immediately became a phenomenon in a way that no one affiliated with it truly understands, even to this day,” according to The New York Times’ film editor on its tenth anniversary.
Jennifer Grey was never a dancer. She was just an actress who had to learn the routine for the movie.
Grey’s early television credits include the made-for-television films Murder in Mississippi (1990), Criminal Justice (1990), and If the Shoe Fits as Kelly Carter / Prudence (1990). She featured as herself in the It’s Like, You Know… (1999–2001).
Grey won season eleven of the dance competition series Dancing with the Stars (2010).