Jessica Capshaw Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Jessica Capshaw
OCCUPATION: Film Actress, Television Actress
BIRTH DATE: August 09, 1976 (Age: 36)
PLACE OF BIRTH: Columbia, Missouri
ZODIAC SIGN: Leo

Best Known For

Television Actress Jessica Capshaw is best known for playing lawyer Jamie Stringer on The Practice and a lesbian doctor named Arizona Roberts on the ABC drama Grey’s Anatomy.

Quiz

Think you know about Biography?

Answer questions and see how you rank against other players.

Play Now

Print Cite This

Jessica Capshaw

APA Style

Jessica Capshaw. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 05:01, May 22, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/jessica-capshaw-5450.

Harvard Style

Jessica Capshaw. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/jessica-capshaw-5450 [Accessed 22 May 2013].

MLA Style

"Jessica Capshaw." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 22 2013, 05:01 http://www.biography.com/people/jessica-capshaw-5450.

MHRA Style

"Jessica Capshaw," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/jessica-capshaw-5450 [accessed May 22, 2013].

Chicago Style

"Jessica Capshaw," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/jessica-capshaw-5450 (accessed May 22, 2013).

CBE/CSE Style

Jessica Capshaw [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 22] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/jessica-capshaw-5450.

Bluebook Style

Jessica Capshaw, http://www.biography.com/people/jessica-capshaw-5450 (last visited May 22, 2013).

AMA Style

Jessica Capshaw. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/jessica-capshaw-5450. Accessed May 22, 2013.

She auditioned for the show twice, first in 2007 when she was pregnant with her son. When she learned, after her second auditioning attempt, that she had been cast in the recurring role of Dr. Arizona Robbins, "it was a jump and scream moment," Capshaw said. On the show, Capshaw plays a lesbian doctor who has a relationship with a fellow physician,

making Grey's Anatomy the first mainstream prime-time drama with an ongoing lesbian storyline.

For her role on Grey's and The L Word Capshaw, has earned a large fan following in the gay and lesbian community. Capshaw has said she is touched by the letters she receives from lesbian fans telling her how much the character means to them. When she is asked what it's like to play a gay character, she says, "I used to always say - because I feel this way - that I wasn't playing anything; it was just this relationship that seemed to make sense and that's kind of the way I hope people would look at things in the world."

Personal Life

Capshaw, who is straight in real life, married entrepreneur Christopher Gavigan in 2004. The couple welcomed their first son in 2007 and a second child in the fall of 2010. Capshaw's son - then 2 years old - was actually the person who first realized that a new baby was on the way. "He pointed to my stomach and said, 'Mommy, baby in your tummy!' I was like, 'What does that mean?'" Capshaw said. "Turned out that I was [expecting]."