09/16/2026
Happy 68th birthday to Jennifer Tilly (born Jennifer Ellen Chan; September 16, 1958). She is an American-Canadian actress and professional poker player, known for her distinctive breathy voice and comedic timing. She began her career with small parts in film and television throughout the mid-late 1980s. Tilly achieved a career breakthrough with her portrayal of Olive Neal in Bullets Over Broadway (1994), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
In 1983, Tilly had small roles and had a recurring guest role on Hill Street Blues as Gina Srignoli, a mobster's widow who becomes romantically involved with detective Henry Goldblume. She played Frasier Crane's seductive-but-ditzy date Candi Pearson on an episode of the fourth season of Cheers and appeared as a similar character on the eleventh season of Frasier.
She appeared as Garry's girlfriend on It's Garry Shandling's Show, which was broadcast on Showtime. She was also cast as a high-end pr******te on the short-lived comedy Key West, alongside Fisher Stevens. In 1989, she had a prominent role in the comedy Let It Ride, starring Richard Dreyfuss. Tilly's breakthrough film role was as a waitress in The Fabulous Baker Boys, a role that was written specially for her by Steve Kloves.
She subsequently earned critical acclaim for her portrayal of Violet, a le***an femme fatale, in Bound (1996). Tilly rose to widespread recognition when she played Tiffany Valentine in Bride of Chucky (1998), reprising the character in several more installments of the Child's Play film series, as well as the Syfy/USA show Chucky (2021–2024). Her association with the franchise has established her as a pop culture icon and scream queen. Since 1999, Tilly has voiced Bonnie Swanson on the Fox animated sitcom Family Guy.
Her other film credits include The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Made in America (1993), Liar Liar (1997), Music from Another Room (1998), Stuart Little (1999), The Cat's Meow (2001), Monsters, Inc. (2001), The Haunted Mansion (2003), Home on the Range (2004), and Tideland (2005). On stage, she appeared in the Broadway revivals of The Women (2001) and Don't Dress for Dinner (2012), and was the recipient of a Theatre World Award in 1993 for her performance in the off-Broadway play One Shoe Off.
Tilly is a World Series of Poker bracelet champion, becoming the first-ever celebrity to win such a tournament in 2005.[9] She won the third World Poker Tour Ladies Invitational Tournament that same year, and was nominated for PokerListings' Spirit of Poker Living Legend Award in 2014. As of 2019, her live tournament winnings exceeded $1 million
