Ally Sheedy is an American stage and screen actress and author of two books, best known for her roles in the films The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire.
The daughter of writer and press agent Charlotte Baum and advertising executive John J. Sheedy, Ally Sheedy was born on June 13, 1962 in New York City. She has two siblings, Patrick and Meghan. Her parents divorced in 1971. Ally Sheedy started her interest in performing at a very young age. She started dancing with the American Ballet Theater at the age of six. She attended Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School where she graduated in 1980. At the age of 12, Ally Sheedy wrote a children’s book, She Was Nice to Mice, which was published by McGraw-Hill and became a best-seller.
Sheedy started acting on local productions while in her teens. She made her film debut in 1983, playing the rape victim girlfriend of Sean Penn’s character in the juvenile delinquent melodrama Bad Boys. Prior to the movie, she has already appeared in several made-for-television movies and on the police drama, Hill Street Blues. In 1985, Sheedy appeared on the American teen film The Breakfast Club, playing the kleptomaniac and compulsive liar Allison Reynolds. Also in that same year, she appeared in the coming-of-age film St. Elmo’s Fire, with Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, and Mare Winningham, in which she played Leslie Hunter, Alec’s career-oriented girlfriend. She also appeared in the films WarGames, Short Circuit and Maid to Order.
In 1998, Sheedy appeared in High-Art, a widely acclaimed independent film which tells the love story of two women. In 2003, she was reunited with her Breakfast Club co-star Anthony Michael Hall when she appeared as special guest in the science fiction suspense series The Dead Zone. She also played a murderer of her boyfriend’s wife in the “Leaping Lizard” episode of C.S.I. On March 3, 2008, ABC introduced her Sarah in its drama series Kyle XY.