Jennifer Beals Turned Down a Flashdance Sequel. 43 Years Later, She’s Running an NCIS Office and Playing a Greek Goddess

If the name Jennifer Beals doesn’t ring a bell, you probably don’t read movie credits…or even the news. This woman has been making headlines since the early ‘80s, when she blew audiences away with her performance in Flashdance (1983).

And Flashdance was just the beginning. Beals went on to appear in around 90 other projects, with more in the pipeline (including a guest role as the Greek goddess Demeter in the third season of Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which premieres November 20). In addition to acting, she’s known for her advocacy work, photography, and even producing.

Right now, 43 years after Flashdance, Beals is a series regular on CBS’s NCIS: New York, which premiered on October 6, 2026 and airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET. She plays Assistant Special Agent in Charge Robyn Wells, who runs the New York field office, alongside LL Cool J and Scott Caan.

Jennifer Beals will turn 63 on December 19, 2026. And she shows no signs of slowing down. But how did she actually get into acting, and what else has she been up to in the last few years?

Jennifer Beals’ Early Life: From ‘Normal’ Chicago Family Life to Flashdance Superstardom

Jennifer Beals, born in 1963, grew up in Chicago with her two brothers. Her mother was an Irish-American school teacher and her father an African-American grocery store owner, who died when she was just nine.

She made her on-screen debut as a teenager with a small, uncredited role in the Chicago-filmed comedy-drama My Bodyguard (1980). Shortly after, as a freshman at Yale University, she beat out countless hopefuls to star as Alex Owens in the 1983 box-office smash Flashdance.

Her performance earned Beals a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical. (Critics were less impressed: Flashdance holds a 37% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, though its audience score is 60%.)

Fun fact: Beals wasn’t a professional dancer, so the iconic dance scenes in Flashdance relied heavily on stunt doubles, including dancer Marine Jahan and gymnast Sharon Shapiro.

Beals didn’t chase the spotlight, either. She went back to Yale and graduated in 1987, and she turned down a role in a Flashdance sequel that was never made, reportedly passing up a large payday that left her agents unhappy. She has said she has never been drawn to projects because of how rich or famous they would make her.

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Jennifer Beals’ Best Roles: More Than Just Alex Owens in Flashdance

Beals didn’t coast on Flashdance. Her other standout roles include:

• The Bride (1985): An undead beauty in this Frankenstein spin
• Four Rooms (1995): Two segments of the Quentin Tarantino-produced anthology
• Devil in a Blue Dress (1995): The mysterious Daphne Monet opposite Denzel Washington
• The Book of Eli (2010): Claudia, in the post-apocalyptic thriller starring Denzel Washington
• The Chicago Code (2011): Chicago’s first female police superintendent

We can’t talk about Jennifer Beals without talking about The L Word. From 2004 to 2009, she starred as Bette Porter in the groundbreaking Showtime drama. At Beals’ request, Bette was made biracial, and the role earned her NAACP Image Award and Satellite Award nominations.

She returned to the character, this time as an executive producer, for the sequel series The L Word: Generation Q (2019-2023).

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What Is Jennifer Beals Doing Now? NCIS: New York, Bishop and Percy Jackson

Beals is currently involved with several different projects, including Bishop — a TV series created by Tony Saltzman and Little Marvin for Amazon Prime Video. She plays the recurring role of Maggie Loftin, a San Francisco Police Department psychologist, according to Deadline. After a read-through of the script in May 2026, Beals posted to Instagram that she still had chills and was “BEYOND grateful to be joining this incredible project.”

When it comes to family life, Beals is still married to her second husband, Canadian entrepreneur Ken Dixon. Their 21-year-old daughter, Ella Dixon, has taken after her mother and appeared in The Bad Seed Returns (2022) and Under the Bridge (2024).

Beals is also known for her advocacy work, particularly her fierce allyship with the LGBTQ+ community through supporting organizations like the Matthew Shepard Foundation. She has also used her platform to push for federal regulations on toxic household chemicals, including a 2013 Capitol Hill push for the Safe Chemicals Act.

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With over 90 acting credits (according to IMDb), Beals has had an exciting career that spans five decades. Audiences can see her in her latest roles in NCIS: New York, where she plays Assistant Special Agent in Charge Robyn Wells, and, starting November 20, the third season of Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians, where she’s been cast as ‘Demeter’.

Flashdance is streaming on Paramount+.