• In Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), she plays a woman passing for white who is actually the daughter of an interracial couple. In real life, this is Beals's racial background, too.
• Film debut was in the 1980 film, My Bodyguard (1980), in which she is uncredited.
• Turned down the opportunity to play herself in "It's Like, You Know..." (1999).
• She put her career on hold to graduate from Yale.
• While at Yale, she was classmates with David Duchovny, who suggested her for a part on "The X Files" (1993) (which went to Gillian Anderson).
• In the film The Anniversary Party (2001), Beals plays a character who takes photographs of performers which she then gives away, usually to the subjects of the photos. Beals actually does this.
• Has an African-American father and an Irish mother.
• In Flashdance (1983), the birth date filled out in the application form is her actual birth date in real life.
• While still a teenager, berore she got into show business, she worked as a babysitter for one of her neighbors - Regis Philbin.
• Good friends with Elizabeth Berkley. The each appeared in a Joe Eszterhas-written film (Berkeley: Showgirls (1995); Beals: Flashdance (1983)), and they appeared together in Roger Dodger (2002).

Beals appeared in Flashdance (1983) while a freshman at Yale studying American literature. While at Yale, she also starred in Franc Roddam's The Bride (1985/I). She married independent filmmaker Alexandre Rockwell in the mid 80s, and has appeared in several of his films. Most notably, she starred in his In the Soup (1992), which won the 1992 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Deauville Film Festival.