Andrea Anders

**Andrea Anders** (born May 10, 1975) is an American actress. She is best known for her work on television, notably *Joey*, *The Class*, *Better Off Ted*, *Mr. Sunshine* and *Mr. Mom*, as well as recurring and guest roles on *Cruel Summer*, *Oz*, *Young Sheldon*, *Modern Family* and *Necessary Roughness*, and getting cast in nearly ten produced but unsold pilots. She will have a recurring role as Sherri Runck in the upcoming series, *That '90s Show*.

## Early life

Andrea Anders was born in Madison, Wisconsin on May 10, 1975, the third child of Terrance and Sally Anders. She was raised in DeForest, Wisconsin with her sister Torri and her brother Sean, where she attended the DeForest Area High School, graduating in 1993. She went on to study acting at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, receiving her bachelor's degree in fine arts in 1997. She then moved to New Jersey to study at Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts, earning a Master of Fine Arts in 2001. In addition, she trained in the Meisner technique under Maggie Flanigan and credits the teacher with her continued work as an actress.

## Career

One of Anders' first appearances on television was a commercial for Danone that ran in the 1990s and then again around 2006.

Her first acting credits came between 1998 and 2001 when she appeared on the soap operas *One Life to Live* and *Guiding Light*, respectively as Elaine, one of Starr Manning's nannies, and Ellie, an assistant to Olivia Spencer.

In 2001, she appeared on an episode of *Law & Order'*s twelfth season, *The Fire This Time*, as teenager Emily Hoyt. A couple of years later she played the recurring role of Donna Degenhart for five episodes in the last season of the HBO drama series *Oz*. That same year, Anders was cast opposite Richard Ruccolo as the female lead in *Spellbound*, a proposed romantic comedy TV series created by Rob Greenberg & Suzanne Martin centered on a male witch who falls in love with a mortal woman. The pilot was passed on by NBC however and was redeveloped unsuccessfully for Fox in 2004 with Maggie Lawson taking over the role.

In 2004, Anders made her big screen debut with a minor role in *The Stepford Wives*, appearing in an early scene with one line of dialogue as Heather, a secretary to Nicole Kidman's main character. That same year, she was cast as Emma Leeds, the female lead in *News To Me*, a potential workplace sitcom created by Joel Stein & Marsh McCall inspired by Stein's experiences as the youngest-ever columnist at *Time* magazine, with Colin Hanks starring as Stein. Despite being at one point considered a strong contender for ABC, the pilot, directed by Pamela Fryman, was not picked up by the network. Also in 2004, Anders was a guest star on the eighteenth episode of the supernatural drama *Tru Calling*.

In July 2004, after *News To Me* failed to make it to series, Andrea Anders was cast in what would be her breakthrough role, Joey Tribbiani's neighbor, landlady, friend and eventual love interest Alex Garrett on *Joey* the highly anticipated spin-off/sequel to *Friends*, replacing Ashley Scott, who was let go in June after her version of the character, then named Allison, was disliked by test audiences. While the series was not well received by critics, it debuted to high viewership, which declined over the course of its run, leading NBC to cancel it in May 2006, during its second season. Anders appears in all 46 episodes of the show.

In between seasons of *Joey*, Anders appeared as a "Christian Band Slut" in her older brother Sean's directorial debut film *Never Been Thawed*, marking the first of many collaborations between the pair.

In February 2006, prior to *Joey'*s cancellation, Anders was cast on the ensemble sitcom *The Class* as Nicole Allen (née Campbell), the unfulfilled wife of a former pro-football player, played by David Keith, who reconnects with her high school boyfriend Duncan, played by Jon Bernthal, after a reunion party. As with *Joey*, *The Class* was very highly anticipated due to being the next project from *Friends* co-creator David Crane, sparking a bidding war between networks CBS, Fox and NBC. Despite this, steady ratings and winning the Favorite New TV Comedy Award at the 33rd People's Choice Awards, CBS did not renew the show for a second season. Anders again appears in all the episodes, 19 this time around.

Following *The Class'* cancelation, Andrea Anders guest starred on a fourth season episode of the crime drama *Numb3rs* and had another small role in one of her brother's films, *Sex Drive*.

In May 2008, Anders was the first person cast in the single-camera satirical workplace comedy *Better Off Ted*, after creator Victor Fresco was impressed with her work on *The Class*. She played Linda Zwordling, the love interest for main character Ted Crisp, played by Jay Harrington, and a co-worker of his at an evil megacorporation. The series eventually premiered the following March to the lowest ratings for a comedy debut seen by network ABC in years. Despite consistently low viewership, critical acclaim kept the show going and even renewed for a second season, but ABC eventually canceled it in May 2010, leaving 2 of the 26 episodes unaired. The show enjoyed a mini-reunion in 2011 through the music video for *Revenge of the Nerds*, a rap song recorded by co-star Malcolm Barrett under the stage name "Verbal", which features all the main actors from the series in cameos either as their characters or, in the case of Anders, new characters.

In April 2009, shortly after *Better Off Ted* premiered, Anders joined the cast of *The Big D*, a domestic comedy sitcom project created by Jackie and Jeff Filgo and centered on Jane and Will Dupree, a New York City based couple played by Anders and Ben Koldyke who moves to Dallas, where the husband is from, and where the wife consistently clashes with her southern belle mother-in-law Donna, played by Deanna Dunagan. Despite her character being central to the premise, Anders was billed as a guest star in case she'd have to work on *The Big D* and *Better Off Ted* at the same time, with the latter having precedence. This ended up not being a problem as CBS passed on the pilot, directed by Andy Ackerman.

In February 2010, Andrea Anders was cast in *Mr. Sunshine*, another highly anticipated sitcom that sparked a bidding war, as the return to comedy television for *Friends* star Matthew Perry, who also co-created the series with Marc Firek and Alex Barnow. The single-camera series follows Perry's character Ben Donovan, the self-involved operations manager of a second-tier arena in San Diego, with Anders playing Alice, the arena's marketing director and Ben's tomboyish friend with benefits who's looking for more commitment. It premiered as a midseason replacement the following February but was canceled by ABC just three months later due to low ratings.

Right after *Mr. Sunshine'*s cancellation, Anders was cast for a story arc in the USA Network's forthcoming drama *Necessary Roughness* as a PR executive and former girlfriend of Marc Blucas' character, appearing in four episodes of the show's first season.

In the years following *Mr. Sunshine*, Andrea Anders starred as a lead in a string of sitcom pilots, none of which were picked up to series. First was *Ladyfriends* in 2012, created by Kari Lizer for NBC and centered on two best friends leading very different lives, portrayed by Anders and Minnie Driver. Then, the next year came *Divorce: A Love Story*, an adaptation of the long-running Israeli sitcom *Ha-Chaim Ze Lo Hacol* developed by Mike Sikowitz & Daniel Lappin for ABC, about a happily divorced couple played by Anders and Jason Jones trying not to get back together. In 2014, she was cast as Stacey, an anchorwoman and co-worker of main character Nick, played by Geoff Stults, in *Cuz-Bros*, created by David Caspe & Erik Sommers for CBS.

In 2015, Anders starred in two pilots. First was *How We Live*, a semi-autobiographical comedy from Brian Bradley & Steven Cragg for NBC, where she played stay-at-home mom Natalie, the best friend of the female lead, played by Briga Heelan, who's moved from Manhattan to the New Jersey suburbs with her blogger husband. Then came *The Half of It*, created by Mike Gibbons for CBS, where Anders portrayed the ex-wife of the main character, played by Jon Dore. Despite this, both were once again passed on. The following year, she once again tried her luck and was cast as the lead in *Crunch Time*, an ambitious project created by Betsy Thomas & Phil Gurin for NBC. The potential series was conceived as a hybrid between a game show with real contestants, hosted by Craig Ferguson in character as the fictional host Toby and a workplace sitcom set around the fictional behind-the-scenes production of the game show, with Anders playing the game show's creator and producer as she deals with Toby and the other demands of her job.

In the midst of all these failed series attempts, Andrea Anders had roles in a number of other projects. In late 2012, she filmed a supporting part in the independent fact-based drama *Return to Zero*, which ended up premiering on the Lifetime Network in 2014. Around the same time, she had recurring roles in the comedy series *About a Boy* and the sixth season of *Modern Family*, appearing in the latter as the obnoxious new neighbor of the Dunphy family. In 2016, she was the main character in the poorly reviewed independent comedy film *Is That a Gun in Your Pocket?*, where her character Jenna starts a movement in her small Texan town to have women withhold sex from their male partners until they dispose of their guns. That same year, she also did a guest spot on the first season of *Speechless*, a sitcom led by her *Ladyfriends* co-star Minnie Driver.

In 2019, she appeared as lead actresses Sophia Lillis' aunt and Elizabeth Lail's mother respectively in the films *Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase* and *Countdown* (the latter produced by her brother Sean), as well as getting her fifth starring role in a short-lived comedy series with *Mr. Mom*, the first original series for the streaming service Vudu and a continuation of the 1983 film of the same name.

## Personal life

Andrea Anders met actor Matt LeBlanc in 2004 while co-starring as his friend and eventual love interest on *Joey* and the pair eventually embarked on a relationship which was confirmed in 2006 following LeBlanc's split from his wife Melissa McKnight. After over eight years as a couple, LeBlanc announced at the start of 2015 that he and Anders had been broken up for several months.

In late 2016, Anders revealed she was pregnant, talking about the experience at length during a stand-up comedy set on 15 December 2016. She has however never publicly discussed the child's birth, gender, name or father, stating only that the pregnancy was unplanned.

On September 15, 2016, Andrea and her older brother Sean Anders were inducted into their high school's hall of fame, at the DeForest Area High School's Performing Arts Center.