Film & TV / Theatre & dance
Elizabeth Berkley
born 1972 · actress, dancer
Saved by the Bell's Jessie Spano grew up in Farmington Hills, trained as a dancer in Detroit and first acted on metro Detroit stages.
- Born
Farmington Hills, Michigan
age 54- Detroit years
- 1972–1988
- Field
- Film & TV, Theatre & dance
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Elizabeth Berkley was born in Farmington Hills on July 28, 1972, and grew up there in a Conservative Jewish family. At four she started jazz and tap lessons at Miss Barbara's Dance Center in Detroit, later studied ballet with Dance Detroit, and for five years danced in the New York City Ballet's holiday Nutcracker when it played Detroit. Acting came next: while attending Cranbrook Kingswood in Bloomfield Hills she made her stage debut as Snoopy in a Cranbrook Theatre production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. She trained with the Detroit company Actors Alliance, played Baby June in Gypsy for the Village Players in Birmingham and Echo in Eleemosynary at Ann Arbor Repertory Theatre. In the fall of 1988, while she was a student at North Farmington High School, her family moved to Los Angeles, and a year later she was cast as Jessie Spano in Saved by the Bell.
Highlights
- Jessie Spano on Saved by the Bell (1989–1993) and the 2020 revival
- Nomi Malone in Showgirls (1995)
- Supporting roles in The First Wives Club (1996) and Any Given Sunday (1999)
- Recurring roles on CSI: Miami and The L Word
- Created Ask-Elizabeth, a self-esteem program for teenage girls
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1980s
Cranbrook School
She took acting and singing classes here and made her stage debut as Snoopy in a Cranbrook Theatre production.
Performed here · 1980s
Village Players of Birmingham
Community theatre in Birmingham where she played Baby June in Gypsy.
Studied here · 1986–1988
North Farmington High School
Her high school until the family moved to Los Angeles in 1988; the school lists her among its alumni.