Detailed Biography

Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis is an American actress, film producer, writer, former fashion model, and a women's Olympics archery team semi-finalist.

Early life

Davis was born in Wareham, Massachusetts, USA, the daughter of Lucille, a teacher's assistant, and William Davis, a civil engineer; she has a brother named Dan. At an early age, she became interested in music. She learned piano, flute and played organ well enough as a teenager to serve as an organist at her church in Wareham. Davis attended Wareham High School and while an exchange student in Sandviken, Sweden, she became bilingual; she is fluent in Swedish. Enrolling at New England College, Davis eventually graduated with a bachelor's degree in drama from Boston University in 1979. While at Boston University, Davis worked part time for the Media Group.

Career

After graduating, Davis served as a window mannequin for Ann Taylor until signing with New York's Zoli modelling agency in 1979. Davis auditioned for roles in many popular movies, including The Terminator’s Sarah Connor, which went to Linda Hamilton. She was working as a model when director Sydney Pollack spotted her and cast her in Tootsie as a soap opera actress. In 1983, she appeared in an episode of "Knight Rider" entitled "K.I.T.T the cat". She followed this up with roles in the short-lived television series Buffalo Bill ; Sara; and a small role in Fletch .

Davis made her film breakthrough with Fletch, The Fly and Beetlejuice. She received an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Accidental Tourist , and a Best Actress nomination for her role in Thelma and Louise . Davis replaced Debra Winger for the lead in A League of Their Own and received a Best Actress Golden Globe Award nomination for her performance. She then co-starred in Hero alongside Dustin Hoffman and Andy Garcia. Following this, Davis teamed up with then-husband Renny Harlin for the films Cutthroat Island and The Long Kiss Goodnight. She and Harlin co-produced the films.

In 2000-2001, Davis starred in the short-lived sitcom The Geena Davis Show. In early 2004, she guest-starred as Grace Adler's sister Janet on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace. She most recently starred in the ABC television series Commander in Chief as the first female President of the United States. This role garnered her a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series in 2006, and she also was nominated for an Emmy Award and a SAG Award for Outstanding Female Actor in a Drama Series.

Personal life

Davis was married to Richard Emmolo ; actor Jeff Goldblum, with whom she co-starred in three films, Transylvania 6-5000, The Fly and Earth Girls Are Easy ; and Renny Harlin, who directed her in Cutthroat Island and The Long Kiss Goodnight . On September 1, 2001, Davis married Iranian American plastic surgeon Reza Jarrahy MD. They have three children: daughter Alizeh Keshvar and fraternal twin boys Kian William Jarrahy and Kaiis Steven Jarrahy on May 6, 2004.

Davis is 6 feet tall and is a member of American Mensa, the society of persons with IQs in the statistical top 2%, with an IQ of 140.

Activism

Davis is fronting the Women's Sports Foundation campaign Geena Takes Aim in support of Title IX — an Act of Congress focusing on equality in sports opportunities, now expanded to prohibit gender discrimination in United States' educational institutions.

In 2004, while watching children’s television programs and videos with her daughter, Davis noticed what she thought was an imbalance in the ratio of male to female characters. From that starting point, Davis went on to sponsor the largest research project ever undertaken on gender in children’s entertainment at the Annenberg School for Communication of University of Southern California. The study, directed by Dr. Stacy Smith, shows that there are nearly 3 males to every 1 female character in the nearly 400 G, PG, PG-13, and R-Rated movies the undergraduate team of Annenberg students coded.

In 2005, Davis teamed up with the non-profit group Dads and Daughters to launch a venture dedicated to balancing the number of male and female characters in children's TV and movie programming.

Davis launched The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media in 2007. The Institute’s first focus is an on-the ground program that works collaboratively with the entertainment industry to dramatically increase the presence of female characters in media aimed at children and to reduce stereotyping of both males and females.

For her work in this field she received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Bates College in May 2009. Geena Davis speaking at Bates College on May 31, 2009.

Sports

Davis states that she wasn't an athlete growing up, and that her introduction to archery was in 1997, two years prior to her tryouts.

Geena Davis was one of 300 women competing in July 1999. for a semifinals berth in the US Olympic team for archery, to participate in the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics She placed 24th of 300 and did not qualify for the team, but participated as a wild-card entry in the Sydney International Golden Arrow competition.