Jamie Luner

Jamie Michelle Luner (born May 12, 1971) is an American actress, producer, voiceover artist and chef.

Luner was born in Palo Alto, California on May 12, 1971 to Susan Luner and Stuart Luner.

She has an older brother, David Luner, who has also had a robust career in the entertainment business.

Luner's parents divorced in 1974.

Luner attended Beverly Hills High School, the same school attended by acclaimed actors such as Angelina Jolie, David Schwimmer, Nicolas Cage, Lenny Kravitz and Betty White.

Luner’s first role was playing the daughter of Suzanne Somers in a Crown Tissues commercial in 1975 at just four years old.

From then on, she appeared regularly in commercials, making ten of them before the age of nine.

During 1986-1987, she attended the PCS Professional Children's School, which was established for providing working youth in the entertainment business with a basic education and curriculum.

Simultaneously, she also studied at HB Studios to study dance with prominent musical theater savant Ann Reinking.

At age sixteen, the producers of Growing Pains asked her to audition for their new spin-off Just the Ten of Us, and upon being cast for the role, Luner returned to California to live with her dad.

She made her first debut with a role on Growing Pains (1987-1990), which led to her performance as Cindy Lubbock on the ABC sitcom Just the Ten of Us (1988-1990).

Luner made her first television show appearance when she landed the role as the infamous Sheena ‘Woo Woo’ Berkowitz in the hit sitcom Growing Pains (1987-1990).

Although she was cast in only one episode to play one of three prom dates of main character Mike Seavers who was played by Kirk Cameron, she was often referenced throughout the rest of the series.

Luner was heavily involved in the drama department during her high school career, and at age fifteen she won LA's Shakespeare Festival for the Individual Monologues category in 1988.

It was with this performance that she realized she wanted a career as an actress.

The very next year, Luner went on to star as Cindy Lubbock in the Growing Pains spinoff, Just the Ten of Us (1988–1990), where she played the daughter of Coach Graham Lubbock portrayed by actor Bill Kirchenbauer.

It also starred Heather Langenkamp, Brooke Theiss and JoAnn Willette as Luner's fictional sisters.

"'After just having been announced winner, I had to immediately perform the monologue to an audience of thousands of peers. Everything in my body was so on fire, I felt the energy of the audience and I knew this is what I wanted to do.'"While filming Growing Pains she befriended the late Matthew Perry and they attended her 1989 prom together.

In between filming Growing Pains and Just the Ten of Us, Luner and her mom moved to New York to pursue Jamie's studies in entertainment.

She graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1989.

She went on to play in Married… with Children (1992) on Fox with Christina Applegate, and the police drama Reasonable Doubts (1993) alongside Marlee Matlin.

Following her roles in these series, she landed her first film lead in 1993 as Diana Moffitt in a television movie Moment of Truth: Why My Daughter?, starring opposite Linda Gray and Antonio Sabàto, Jr..

In 1994, when Luner was just 23, she decided to pursue her passion for cooking and attended one of LA's top culinary schools, the Epicurean School of Culinary Arts, to study the fundamentals of fine French cuisine.

Luner continued with a succession of television films, most notably Confessions of a Sorority Girl (1994) which debuted on Showtime and was directed by Uli Edel and co-starred Alyssa Milano.

Her first role in a multitude of crime dramas was Diagnosis Murder (1994), with renowned actor Dick Van Dyke.

In 1994, Luner expanded her education and passion for cooking and joined the Epicurean School of Culinary Arts which taught classical French cuisine in Los Angeles, California.

"“I grew up in a very food-oriented family, a lot of cooking, a lot of eating, and I have a passion for it, so I put myself through culinary school.”"Luner then worked and studied under chef Claude Seagal in the French kitchen of the eponymous flagship restaurant Drais owned by nightclub owner Victor Drai on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Here she began with minor responsibilities such as grating carrots, to gradually mastering one of their signature dishes - the salmon puff pastry with lobster mousse sitting in a lobster reduction sauce.

Many after-awards ceremonies were hosted at Drais, and Luner found herself making dishes for well-known figures of entertainment such as Madonna, Tom Hanks and Barbra Streisand.

She rose to prominence with her roles as Peyton Richards on Savannah (1996-1997), Lexi Sterling on Melrose Place (1997-1999) and Rachel Burke on Profiler (1997-2000).

Luner's major rise to prominence came in 1996, when she was cast for the first of many times by well-known producer Aaron Spelling.

She joined the series as southern vixen Peyton Richards in the prime-time soap opera, Savannah (1996–1997), which was the signature show on the newly-launched WB Television Network.

Luner starred alongside other notable actors such as Robyn Lively, Shannon Sturges, George Eads, Ray Wise, and Mimi Kennedy.

Luner had moved to Atlanta, Georgia during the filming of this series, and once it concluded, bought an airstream and traveled the United States for eight months before landing on a lot in Malibu.

More recently, Luner portrayed Liza Colby on the ABC soap opera All My Children (2009-2011) and Cassie Siletti on Murder in the First (2015-2016).

Luner is also well known for her lead roles in many Lifetime movies.

Following three and a half decades worth of starring in films and television, in 2011 Luner went on to receive a masters in Spiritual Psychology at the University of Santa Monica.

“I love learning and I wanted to further my education.

I’ve always been on the spiritual path, and as a storyteller the human psyche truly fascinates me.

Brilliantly, school was set up as “experiential learning," so what I didn’t expect was the profound internal transformation that occurred. It’s been the gift that keeps on giving.”