Jennifer Runyon
Jennifer Runyon is an actor, born 1960.
Runyon's screen career fits almost entirely inside one decade, and it is a very 1980s decade. She lived from 1960 to 2026, made her feature debut in the 1980 slasher To All a Goodnight, and by 1984 was working constantly: the lead in the college comedy Up the Creek, Gwendolyn Pierce in the first season of Charles in Charge, Alicia Clayton in The Master, and one scene in Ghostbusters, credited simply as Female Student, opposite Bill Murray.
That last one is the credit everyone has seen. It is also a fair illustration of how the era used performers like her, hiring an appealing screen presence for a single well-written scene and moving on. The following years brought the sort of work that decade produced in volume: The Falcon and the Snowman, the body-swap comedy 18 Again!, television movies, guest spots, and a turn as Cindy Brady in a Brady Bunch reunion film that is not among the credits listed here.
Her last screen role was Carnosaur in 1993, a low-budget dinosaur picture of the kind that decade produced in quantity. She stepped away from acting afterwards and said in a 2014 interview that she was semi-retired.
It is a modest filmography, and there is no point inflating it. What is true is that within it she is consistently likeable in a way that cannot be manufactured.
Movies (5)
TV (2)
Where to start with Jennifer Runyon
Almost everyone has already seen her in Ghostbusters, and it is one scene, so treat that as a footnote rather than an introduction.
The actual showcase is Up the Creek, a raucous, very of-its-moment college comedy where she carries the romantic half of the film and is far better than the material around her. The Falcon and the Snowman is the only serious drama in the list and the most interesting film she appeared in, though her part is small. Charles in Charge is the sitcom season that made her a familiar face on American television. 18 Again! is amiable eighties high-concept comedy. Carnosaur is the last one and exactly what a low-budget dinosaur picture from 1993 sounds like, which is part of its appeal.