Joanna Kerns

Acting

Joanna Kerns

Born 1953-02-12 · San Francisco, California, USA

Joanna Crussie DeVarona Kerns is an American actress and director best known for her role as Maggie Seaver on the family situation comedy Growing Pains from 1985 to 1992. After Growing Pains ended, she turned to directing. She directed one episode of Growing Pains while starring on the show and got hooked. She has also directed episodes of television shows including Dawson's Creek, Titans, Scrubs, Private Practice, Psych, Felicity, Grey's Anatomy, Privileged, ER, Ghost Whisperer, Army Wives, Pretty Little Liars, Switched at Birth, The Goldbergs, This Is Us, and Fuller House. She has also made notable appearances in feature films, including A*P*E, Girl, Interrupted, and the 2007 comedy Knocked Up. She has also starred in a number of TV movies. In 1974, Kerns met a commercial producer, Richard Kerns, on the set of a commercial, and they married two years later. Their marriage lasted nine years and the couple had a daughter, Ashley Cooper. In 1994, she married Marc Appleton, a prominent Los Angeles architect. In August 2019, she filed for divorce from Appleton. She previously dated comedian and actor Freddie Prinze a short time before he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The two had worked together on the 1976 TV movie, The Million Dollar Rip-Off.

Acting credits

Knocked Up poster
6.3

A slacker and a career-driven woman accidentally conceive a child after a one-night stand. As they try to make the relationship work, they must navigate the challenges of parenthood and their differences in lifestyle and maturity.

Knocked Up

2007

Girl, Interrupted poster
7.6

Set in the changing world of the late 1960s, Susanna Kaysen's prescribed "short rest" from a psychiatrist she had met only once becomes a strange, unknown journey into Alice's Wonderland, where she struggles with the thin line between normal and crazy. Susanna soon realizes how hard it is to get out once she has been committed, and she ultimately has to choose between the world of people who belong inside or the difficult world of reality outside.

Girl, Interrupted

1999

Coma poster
6.8

When relatively healthy patients begin having 'complications' during simple operations and ending up in comas, a concerned doctor defies her male superiors when she suspects a secret plot.

Coma

1978

She's Having a Baby poster
5.9

Jake and Kristy Briggs are newlyweds. Being young, they are perhaps a bit unprepared for the full reality of marriage and all that it (and their parents) expect from them. Do they want babies? Their parents certainly want them to. Is married life all that there is? Things certainly aren't helped by Jake's friend Davis, who always seems to turn up just in time to put a spanner in the works.

She's Having a Baby

1988

The Great Los Angeles Earthquake poster
6.7

After a series of small tremors in Los Angeles, Dr. Clare Winslow, a local seismologist, pinpoints the exact location and time of when the long awaited earthquake--"The Big One"--will strike southern California. With this information, she must battle city officials to release this information to the general public. Also, she hopes that her family is out of harms way when the quake strikes. Subplots show how other families and people cope with the the tremors that strike before the impending "Big One."

The Great Los Angeles Earthquake

1990

Whose Daughter is She? poster
5.6

Two mothers, one biological, one stepmother, fight for the custody and love of 13-year-old Andrea.

Whose Daughter is She?

1995

The Preppie Murder poster
5.6

This is the story of a young woman who was found dead. Now the police investigate, and evidence points to a man she was seen leaving a party with. Now when questioned, he claims that her death was accidental, as a result of rough sex. Now her family doesn't believe this, so they press the district attorney's office to try him for murder, but he has a good lawyer who plays his defense right down to putting the dead girl on trial.

The Preppie Murder

1989

Voices That Care poster
7.0

Behind the scenes making of the charity single "Voices That Care".

Voices That Care

1991

All Over the Guy poster
5.8

A contemporary romantic comedy exploring the unlikely pairing of two 20-somethings thrown together by their respective best friends in hopes of igniting their own romance.

All Over the Guy

2001

A*P*E poster
3.8

A newly discovered 36-foot gorilla escapes from a freighter off the coast of Korea. At the same time an American actress is filming a movie in the country. Chaos ensues as the ape kidnaps her and rampages through Seoul.

A*P*E

1976

Cross My Heart poster
5.3

A man and a woman go out on a "big" third date. He's ashamed to admit he just lost his job, and she's afraid he'll run away if he finds out that she has a kid. Small lies lead to bigger ones and the night gets crazy very soon.

Cross My Heart

1987

No One Could Protect Her poster
5.5

Fact-based drama about a smalltown rape victim who helps the police trap her attacker who has invaded her home again and again.

No One Could Protect Her

1996

Walt Disney World Very Merry Christmas Parade poster
NR

The seventh annual Walt Disney World Christmas parade.

Walt Disney World Very Merry Christmas Parade

1989

Ain't It Funny poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Ain't It Funny

2017

Not in My Family poster
5.1

Veronica Ricci is bombarded by strange feelings and fleeting involuntary memories about her childhood after giving birth to her first child. She seeks help from her estranged sister and soon realizes that these memories connect to childhood abuse that the sister underwent. Based on a true story.

Not in My Family

1993

Shameful Secrets poster
6.1

A woman and her children seemingly live the idyllic suburban dream, but unbeknownst to their neighbors and friends, the kids are being brutally abused by their father who is unable to control his temper.

Shameful Secrets

1993

The Nightman poster
3.2

A drifter comes between an aging Southern beauty and her teenaged daughter.

The Nightman

1992

Mistress poster
4.3

A woman who's been having an affair with a married man who's been taking care of her. When he dies she finds herself with nothing. So she tries to rebuild her life but not without the stigma of being a kept woman following her.

Mistress

1987

Deadly Intentions... Again? poster
6.5

A doctor was sent to prison for the attempted murder of his first wife. When he is released, he starts to plan the death of his second wife whom he married before he was incarcerated.

Deadly Intentions... Again?

1991

Mortal Fear poster
5.5

Based on the provocative best-selling novel, a brilliant scientist finds the hidden link that can save countless lives, but when a crazed killer uses the same information to play God, millions are at risk. Dr. Jennifer Kessler is the one person who stands in the way of ultimate medical disaster. After witnessing one, then dozens of patients at her hospital mysteriously and unexpectedly die, her search for the truth leads her through a bizarre world of intrigue, passion and controversial secret medical research. As Dr. Kessler races against the clock to find a way to stop catastrophe, she finds herself up against an imposing and terrifying conspiracy implicating the entire U.S. insurance and medical system in the process.

Mortal Fear

1994

Stormin' Home poster
7.0

An aging motor-cross racer, already having lost his wife and daughter to his footlooseness and now about to have his semi-tractor cab repossessed, vows to make one last go of it on his bike in the race of his career.

Stormin' Home

1985

Mother Knows Best poster
6.1

A woman urges her daughter to get married. And when her daughter does, she doesn't think that she made a good choice. So she goes out and hires a killer to kill her son-in-law.

Mother Knows Best

1997

Street Justice poster
7.0

A forgotten CIA agent escapes after 12 years and returns to his corrupt New Jersey hometown.

Street Justice

1987

A Bunny's Tale poster
5.3

A dramatization of Gloria Steinem's undercover investigation of the working conditions Bunnies faced at the Playboy Clubs.

A Bunny's Tale

1985

Behind the camera