Jamie Lee Curtis was born on November 22, 1958 in Los Angeles, California.The daughter of screen legends Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtis was born in the spotlight. After dropping out of college to pursue acting, Curtis made her debut in the television series Operation Petticoat in 1977. That same year, Curtis landed a starring role in the horror film Halloween (1978). A host of horror films followed, including roles in The Fog(1980), Terror Train(1980), and Halloween II (1981), and Curtis' reputation as a "Scream Queen" was secured.

Curtis' acting talents were better showcased in her later roles in A Fish Called Wanda, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination in 1989, and a television series Anything But Love, for which she won a Golden Globe in 1989. Curtis won a second Golden Globe for her performance in True Lies (1994) also starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Regarded by some critics as her best work, True Lies boosted Curtis' career.

In 1998 and 2002, she went back to horror, starring in two other Halloween sequels, Halloween H20 and Halloween: Resurrection, twenty years after she appeared inthe original. Though she gave memorable supporting performances in 2000's Drowning Mona and 2001's Tailor of Panama, Curtis' next big big box office success came with a younger crowd when she costarred as Tess Coleman in the 2003 remake of Freaky Friday.

Curtis has written several children's books, including Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born (1996) and When I Was Little: A Four-Year-Old's Memoir of Her Youth (1993).

She is married to actor/director Christopher Guest, with whom she has two adopted children, Annie and Thomas.