Joanna Kerns
Actor
Biography
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.
As Director
Filmography
Knocked Up
as Alison's Mom 2007
Girl, Interrupted
as Annette 1999
Coma
as Diane 1978
She's Having a Baby
as Joanna Kerns (uncredited) 1988
All Over the Guy
as Lydia 2001
A*P*E
as Marilyn Baker 1976
Cross My Heart
as Nancy 1987
The Great Los Angeles Earthquake
as Dr. Clare Winslow 1990
Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers
as Maggie Seaver 2004
It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman!
as Citizen (uncredited) 1975
The Growing Pains Movie
as Maggie Seaver 2000
Terror in the Family
as Cynthia Marten 1996
The Rape of Richard Beck
as Anita Parrish 1985
Desperate Choices: To Save My Child
as Mel Robbins 1992
A Bunny's Tale
as Andrea 1985
Mother Knows Best
as Celeste Cooper 1997
See Jane Run
as Jane Ravenson 1995