Jennifer Jason Leigh (born February 5, 1962) is a Golden Globe- and NYFCC Award-winning American actress.

Her work has drawn high critical praise. Salon praised her as "one of America's best actors", Paul Verhoeven, who directed her in Flesh & Blood, similarly claimed, "There is no greater actress working in America", and in 1994, Vogue claimed, "Leigh sets a standard that all future film actresses must attempt to match… (She has) an extraordinary range and power. The proof is in her diverse, courageous and mesmerizing body of work." She has already received three separate career tributes – at the Telluride Film Festival in 1993, a special award for her contribution to independent cinema from the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2002, and a week-long retrospective showing of her film work held by the American Cinematheque at Los Angeles’ Egyptian Theatre in June 2001. In addition to these achievements, Leigh was selected as one of "America's 10 Most Beautiful Women" by Harper's Bazaar in 1989.

Born in Los Angeles, Jennifer Jason Leigh - the daughter of actor Vic Morrow - worked in her first film at the age of nine, in a nonspeaking role for the film Death of a Stranger (Tod eines Fremden (1973)). At 14 she attended summer acting workshops given by Lee Strasberg and landed a role in the Disney TV movie Young Runaways, The (1978) (TV), and received her Screen Actors Guild membership in an episode of the TV series "Baretta" (1975) when she was 16. Jennifer performed in several TV movies and dropped out of Pacific Palisades High School six weeks short of graduation for her major role in the film Eyes of a Stranger (1981). Her first major success came as the female lead in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982).