Bio
Nancy McKeon is an American actress best known for her role as Joanna 'Jo' Marie Polniaczek Bonner in the television series The Facts Of Life, starring on the show from 1980-1988.
She is also known for her role as Inspector Jinny Exstead in The Division, playing the role from 2001-2004.
McKeon was born in Westbury, New York to a show business family; she and her brother Philip McKeon did numerous commercials. Nancy also appeared on the soap operas The Secret Storm and Another World.
The McKeons moved to Los Angeles in 1975, when Philip got a job as Linda Lavin's son on the television series Alice.
In 1979, McKeon was discovered by a casting director for The Facts of Life after a performance in a Hallmark greeting cards advertisement. She was cast as tough and independent tomboy Jo Polniaczek, and debuted on the show in the fall of 1980.
This would be her most famous role and her shot to stardom; she would play the role until the show was canceled in 1988.
Since then, she has starred in many made-for-TV movies, most notably A Cry for Help: The Tracey Thurman Story, in which she portrays an abuse victim.
She starred in her own series, Can't Hurry Love, in 1995, to only moderate critical success.
She played Inspector Jinny Exstead on the police drama The Division from 2001 to 2004. Her pregnancy was incorporated into the storyline of the last year of the series.
Previously, she starred in the movie The Wrong Woman, as a woman framed for killing her boss. Recently she starred in the film Comfort and Joy.
McKeon married key grip Marc Andrus in June 2003, and in March 2004 gave birth to their daughter, Aurora.