Ryan was born Jeri Lynn Zimmermann in Munich, West Germany, the daughter of Gerhard Florian "Jerry" Zimmermann, a master sergeant in the United States Army, and his wife Sharon, a social worker. She has one older brother, Mark. As a military brat, Ryan grew up on army bases in Kansas, Maryland, Hawaii, Georgia, and Texas. When she was eleven, her father retired from the Army and the family settled Read more...

After college, she pursued acting full-time in Los Angeles. She made her acting debut in Who's the Boss? and followed that with guest-starring roles in TV shows like Melrose Place, Matlock, and The Sentinel as well as TV movies such as Co-Ed Call Girl.

Her big break came when she won a regular role as an extraterrestrial investigator named Juliet Stuart on the TV show Dark Skies. The show Read more...

In 1990, while dealing blackjack at a charity event, Jeri met investment banker and future political candidate Jack Ryan. The couple married on June 15, 1991 and had a son, Alex, on August 15, 1994. Throughout the marriage, Ryan and her husband took turns commuting between Los Angeles and Chicago for their careers, but finally divorced on August 27, 1999. Although Ryan mentioned (in an interview Read more...