Megan Marie Ward (born September 24, 1969) is an American actress. She is best known for her numerous credits in

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

and

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction ** Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction **Korean horror, Korean horror fiction * Horror film, a film genre *Horror comics, comic books focusing o ...

movies A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

series. In 2007, she joined the cast of the American daytime drama ''

General Hospital ''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the list of longest-running television shows by category, longest-running American soap opera in pro ...

'' as

Kate Howard Kate Howard is a fictional character from the ABC Daytime soap opera '' General Hospital''. The character was originated by actress Megan Ward, who portrayed the role from May 2007 to October 2010. In September 2011, the role was re-introduced ...

. She also appeared in the 1990s comedies ''

Encino Man ''Encino Man'' (known as ''California Man'' in France, Finland, Sweden, Great Britain, Asia, South Africa, and New Zealand) is a 1992 American comedy film directed by Les Mayfield in his directorial debut. The film stars Sean Astin, with a suppo ...

'', ''

Freaked ''Freaked'' is a 1993 American comedy film directed by Tom Stern and Alex Winter, both of whom wrote the screenplay with Tim Burns. Winter also starred in the lead role. Both were involved in the short-lived MTV sketch comedy show '' The Idiot ...

'', '' PCU'', ''

The Brady Bunch Movie ''The Brady Bunch Movie'' is a 1995 American comedy film that parodies the 1969–1974 television series ''The Brady Bunch''. The film was directed by Betty Thomas, with a screenplay by Laurice Elehwany, Rick Copp, and Bonnie and Terry Turner, and ...

'', and ''

Joe's Apartment ''Joe's Apartment'' is a 1996 American musical black comedy film written and directed by John Payson (in his feature directorial debut), based on his 1992 short film of the same name, and starring Jerry O'Connell and Megan Ward. The first MTV Films ...

''.

Early life

Ward, born on September 24, 1969, in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, is the youngest of four siblings, and her parents were both professional actors and acting coaches. When Ward was four years old, her family moved to

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

. At the age of nine, she began doing

commercials A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

for local

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

s. In her early teens, she went to Japan for

modeling A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

jobs and stayed for several years. Having previously learned to speak the language from her schooling in Hawaii, she landed a job hosting a Japanese television show, ''Science Q'', a science TV program broadcast in

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestri ...

from 1988 to February 1989.

Career

After graduating from Kaiser High School, Ward moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, and secured roles in science-fiction and comedy movies (including leading roles in

Charles Band Charles Robert Band (born December 27, 1951) is an American film producer and director, known for his work on horror comedy movies. Career Band entered film production in the 1970s with Charles Band Productions. Dissatisfied with distributo ...

's classics '' Crash and Burn'', ''

Trancers II ''Trancers II'' (also released as ''Trancers II: The Return of Jack Deth'') is a 1991 American direct-to-video science fiction action film directed by Charles Band. It is a sequel to ''Trancers'' and is set six years after the events of the first. ...

'' and ''

Trancers III ''Trancers III'' (also released as ''Trancers 3: Deth Lives!'') is a 1992 American direct-to-video science fiction action film directed by C. Courtney Joyner. It is the second sequel to ''Trancers'', and also marks Helen Hunt's final appearance in ...

'' (as

Jack Deth Jack Deth is the main protagonist in the ''Trancers'' films, which were originally produced by Charles Band of Empire Pictures, and later Full Moon Entertainment, from 1984 to 2013. Jack Deth is a wisecracking police detective in Angel City (fo ...

's future-wife), ''

Arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

'', and the 1993 Tom Stern/

Alex Winter Alexander Ross Winter (born July 17, 1965) is a British-American actor and filmmaker. He played the slacker Bill in the 1989 film ''Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'' and its sequels ''Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey'' (1991) and ''Bill & Ted Face t ...

horror/comedy ''

''). She is also well known for playing Robyn Sweeney, the teen crush of Dave (played by

Sean Astin Sean Patrick Astin (né Duke; February 25, 1971) is an American actor. His acting roles include Samwise Gamgee in ''The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003), Mikey Walsh in ''The Goonies'' (1985), Daniel Ruettiger in ''Rudy'' (1993), Doug ...

), in the 1992 comedy ''

''. In the mid-1990s, Ward had a recurring role on the show ''

Party of Five ''Party of Five'' is an American television teen and family drama created by Christopher Keyser and Amy Lippman that originally aired on Fox for six seasons from September 12, 1994, to May 3, 2000. The series featured an ensemble cast led by Sc ...

''. Following the exit of her ''Party of Five'' character, Ward took the lead role in the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

thriller-series ''

Dark Skies ''Dark Skies'' is an American UFO conspiracy theory-based sci-fi television series that debuted on NBC on September 21, 1996, and ended on May 31, 1997, and was later rerun by the Sci-Fi Channel; 18 episodes and a two-hour pilot episode were br ...

''. Since the cancellation of ''Dark Skies'', she was appearing in mainly

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...

films such as ''Tick Tock'' and ''Mirror Man'' as well as TV series such as '' Summerland'', '' Sports Night'', ''

Kevin Hill ''Kevin Hill'' is an American legal drama that aired on UPN from September 29, 2004 to May 18, 2005. It was filmed and produced in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Synopsis The series stars Taye Diggs as the title character, a lawyer who has to balanc ...

'', and ''

Boomtown A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although ...

'', in which she had a substantial part. She later debuted as

on ''

'' on May 4, 2007. Ward was taken off contract in March 2009 and remained on the series as a recurring character. In 2010, Ward was dropped completely from the cast of ''General Hospital''. She made a special guest appearance on the show in 2018. Ward has also made a guest appearance on ''

CSI: NY ''CSI: NY'' (''Crime Scene Investigation: New York'', stylized as ''CSI: NY/Crime Scene Investigation'') is an American police procedural television series that ran on CBS from September 22, 2004, to February 22, 2013, for a total of nine seaso ...

.'' Most recently, Ward portrayed Michelle in the

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

''The Invited'' under the direction of Ryan McKinney.

Personal life

In 1995, Ward married Michael Shore, whom she met in acting class. They have two children, a son named Oliver (born in 2001) and a daughter named Audrey (born in 2006).Soaps in Depth, ''Love Letters, Megan Ward''.
Issue of February 25, 2008.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Megan 1969 births Living people American television actresses American film actresses Actresses from Hawaii People from Honolulu American soap opera actresses 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses Actresses from Los Angeles