Laurie Metcalf and Jeff Perry’s love of acting brought them together.
The former couple met in Chicago as theater students and Laurie joined Jeff’s then-new Steppenwolf Theatre Company alongside the likes of John Malkovich and Gary Sinise. The actors would all go on to have impressive careers, with Laurie landing the role of Jackie in Roseanne and Jeff starring in Nash Bridges and Scandal.
The actors stayed connected beyond their time at the Steppenwolf Theater and got married in 1983. Though their relationship ended in divorce three years later, Laurie and Jeff’s daughter, actress Zoe Perry, has kept them connected.
“We just knew we loved this girl, and we weren’t gonna screw that up,” Jeff told the New York Post in 2008 about maintaining a relationship with Laurie following the end of their marriage.
Since their divorce, Jeff married casting director Linda Lowy in 1989 and Laurie married actor Matt Roth in 1993. The latter couple split in 2014 after welcoming three children together.
From their early years to their co-parenting relationship, here’s everything to know about Laurie Metcalf and Jeff Perry’s former relationship.
Jeff Perry and Laurie Metcalf attend the AEA actors picket their own union on March 23, 2015 in Burbank, California.
Laurie and Jeff met in the ‘70s as theater students at Illinois State University. Eventually, Laurie would join the Steppenwolf Theatre Company as an original member, where her relationship with Jeff strengthened.
The Inventing Anna actor was one of the co-founders of the theater group and has performed in and directed over 40 productions, per the company’s website. Laurie has also credited much of her acting chops to her time with the theater.
“If I’ve ever had a mentor, it was those people. We learned from each other. We challenged each other,” Laurie told Chicago magazine in 2018 about her relationship with Jeff and their Steppenwolf colleagues. “We were doing roles that no one else would cast us in — roles that were age-inappropriate or we had no business doing — but we did them anyway to make each other laugh. That made us better.”
They tied the knot in 1983 and ultimately split in 1986.
The same year they married, Laurie and Jeff welcomed their first and only child, Zoe. She grew up going from theater productions to television sets with her famous mom and dad.
“When I was younger, I was living in that green room and accompanying them to all the different theaters that they worked at,” she told Entertainment Tonight in 2018. “So, that has always remained a nostalgic place for me and also one of great admiration.”
Zoe Perry as Mary on ‘Young Sheldon’.
Although sets and stages felt like home to Zoe, Laurie and Jeff made an “unwritten pact” to keep Zoe out of acting until she was an adult.
“I didn’t want her to have to deal with the stress,” Laurie told PEOPLE in 2017. Per Broadway Buzz, Zoe started college at Boston University before she transferred to Northwestern University, where she decided to get into acting.
Zoe has had roles on NCIS and Liv & Maddie. She has also acted in the same series as her parents. In Young Sheldon, Zoe played the younger version of Laurie’s character from The Big Bang Theory and she has appeared on both Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, which Jeff has starred on.
Additionally, she has acted onstage with both of her parents, in The Other Place with Laurie and Anna Christie with Jeff.
While their romantic relationship may not have worked out in the long run, Laurie and Jeff remained friends for Zoe. Laurie has opened up about her close relationship with Jeff and his second wife, Linda.
“There’s not really a term for it, but I love her, so I call her my sister-in-law,” Laurie told the New York Post about Linda, who is a casting director on Grey’s Anatomy. Linda even cast both Jeff and Laurie in an episode of the show together.
“My stepmom reminded me of a conversation she had with my mom early on, who said, ‘Well, we’re a family,’ and that generosity sort of bred. So I have four amazing parents who support me!” Zoe told the outlet.
