Biography

Joan Severance was born and raised in Houston, Texas. At the age of 18 and at the sole urging of John Casablancas of Elite models, she went to Paris, France to begin a modeling career that would turn out to be well worth the price of the ticket Casablancas sent her. Within months she graced the covers of all the international magazines and was doing shows for all the top designers. She landed campaigns for Chanel and Versace. After eight months she moved to NYC to pursue the US market and was quick to land several national commercials for Windsong perfume, Breck shampoo, Clairol, English Leather, L'oreal, Revlon and Maybeline.

After several dozen commercials and a very high profile editorial career, she quit the modeling industry to head to Hollywood. Within weeks, she had a manager, an agent and was studying with several different acting coaches. It was six months later that she landed her first role on a major television series for CBS called Un flic dans la mafia (1987), starring Ken Wahl and Kevin Spacey. It was only a matter of time that director Arthur Hiller cast her in Pas nous, pas nous (1989) with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor and her costar from Wiseguy, Kevin Spacey. That same year, she did Comme un oiseau sur la branche (1990) with Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn, and Cadence de combat (1989) with Hulk Hogan. Later starring in several films, including Zalman King's Lake Consequence (1993) with Billy Zane.

She has appeared in over fifteen films. She has worked with Robert Urich on Aaron Spelling's La croisière s'amuse, nouvelle vague (1998) and with Ann-Margret on Life of the Party: The Pamela Harriman Story (1998) for Lifetime. Ms. Severance has been in many popular TV shows, like Masters of Sex (2013), Les frères Scott (2003), and Les Experts : Miami (2002).

Her hobbies include interior, landscape and fashion design, cooking, reading, entertaining, writing and anything to do with horses. Severance has finished her first book, "Manifest Your Mate: a Journal for Attraction". Science, health and the unknown spark her interests. She has a gourmet cooking degree from Roger Verge from The Moulin du Mougin in the South of France, owned and was the chef of a restaurant in upstate New York, owned a catering company in New York, and has taught commercial acting classes.

Ms. Severance has a Bachelors Degree in Natural Health. She desires to develop a television talk show aimed at a younger audience about alternative and holistic lifestyles choices. Ms. Severance created, txTylz®, a communication game, and is developing it for a mobile app.

- IMDb mini biography by: Joan Severance