bio

Nancy McKeon: Early Bloomer
Nancy McKeon got a very early start in show business (she was a child model for years before she played Jo on "The Facts of Life"), but has endured as a talented actress with a knack for portraying flawed women battling their personal demons. One of the stars of Lifetime's new cop show with a heart, "The Division," McKeon is also a gifted writer, producer, director and, most importantly, friend.

At the ripe old age of three, she was signed with a modeling agency. The precocious little girl and her mother would shuttle from the family's suburban home in Queens to glitzy Manhattan, so that she could strike adorable poses for the Sears catalog and The New York Times. As McKeon grew, so did her resume. By age 10, she had appeared in dozens of commercials and a TV soap. But she owes her big break to her beloved big brother, Philip.

In 1977, Philip McKeon, then 12, was cast as Linda Lavin's son on the TV sitcom "Alice." The big-time gig meant the entire McKeon clan had to uproot itself and move to California, where they lived in a cramped one-bedroom apartment. Brother and sister alternated sleeping on the couch and floor. Initially, McKeon was frustrated by her obscurity in Tinseltown, but after a few years, she landed a guest part on the classic '70s detective show, "Starsky and Hutch" � as the crying little sister of an abused boy. Her believable performance won over the president of NBC, who thought of McKeon when he was revamping the network's flagging show, "The Facts of Life." McKeon joined the series in 1980 as Jo Polniaczek, the tomboy with a heart of gold. "The Facts of Life" became a major hit, staying on the air until 1988.

When she was on summer hiatus, McKeon starred in movies-of-the-week, including "This Child Is Mine" (she was an unwed mom) and "High School USA." When "The Facts of Life" went off the air in 1988, McKeon had such a solid grasp of the filmmaking process that she began starring in and producing her own projects under the auspices of her production company, Forest Hills Entertainment (named after her childhood neighborhood in Queens). These included the made-for-television flicks "Strange Voices" (she played Valerie Harper's schizophrenic daughter), "Firefighters" (she portrayed L.A.'s first woman firefighter) and the short-lived single-woman CBS sitcom "Can't Hurry Love." McKeon also appeared briefly on the ill-fated TV show "Style & Substance," starring "Designing Women" star Jean Smart.

These days, McKeon is busy doing her thing as Jinny Exstead, the hellion cop on Lifetime's new original series, "The Division." In her spare time, she does yoga and spends time with her close circle of friends and family.