1975-present
Drew Barrymore Now: Reverses Decision on Resuming Talk Show
Drew Barrymore has reversed her decision to broadcast Season 4 of her talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show, in the middle of the Writers Guild of America strike. The 48-year-old host faced criticism since announcing her decision, with protestors picketing the show outside CBS studios in Manhattan. Barrymore—who had previously drawn praise for stepping down as host of the MTV Movie & TV Awards in solidarity with the writers’ strike—initially defended her position to resume production, but on September 17, she announced the show would not resume. “I have listened to everyone, and I am making the decision to pause the show’s premiere until the strike is over,” Barrymore said in a statement. “I have no words to express my deepest apologies to anyone I have hurt and, of course, to our incredible team who works on the show and has made it what it is today.”
Who Is Drew Barrymore?
Actor Drew Barrymore captured audiences’ hearts at age 7 with her role in E.T.: The Extraterrestrial. Her troubled childhood soon led to substance abuse and a wild reputation, which negatively impacted her career for many years. Barrymore co-founded Flower Films in 1995 and has since regained success as a talented actor, producer, and businesswoman, starring in movies such as The Wedding Singer, Charlie’s Angels, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and Music and Lyrics. She has hosted the syndicated talk show The Drew Barrymore Show since 2020.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Drew Blythe Barrymore
BORN: February 22, 1975
BIRTHPLACE: Culver City, California
SPOUSES: Jeremy Thomas (1994-1995), Tom Green (2001-2002), and Will Kopelman (2012-2016)
CHILDREN: Olive and Frankie
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Pisces
Childhood and 'E.T.'
Drew Blythe Barrymore was born on February 22, 1975, in Los Angeles. She is the daughter of actor John Drew Barrymore Jr. and Ildiko Jaid Barrymore, but her family tree of actors doesn’t end there: Her great-grandparents Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew and grandparents John Barrymore and Dolores Costello were also actors. Famous director Steven Spielberg is Drew’s godfather, and her godmothers are actors Sophia Loren and Anna Strasberg, the wife of acting teacher and theater director Lee Strasberg.
Jaid, estranged from her husband, began taking her daughter to auditions when Drew was an infant. She appeared in a television commercial for Puppy Choice dog food before her first birthday. Drew made her big-screen debut at the age of 5 in Ken Russell’s Altered States (1980). At age 7, she landed one of her most famous roles: playing Gertie, the adorable little sister in Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extraterrestrial (1982). The role pushed the young actor into the spotlight. After working on the movie, she appeared on NBC’s The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and became Saturday Night Live’s youngest guest.
Playboy Shoot and Troubled Teen Years
However, Jaid soon began taking her daughter to night clubs, and it was at Studio 54 and the China Club that Barrymore developed a preteen fondness of drugs and alcohol. At 13, an enraged Barrymore became violent when she was unable to throw her mother out of the house. She was placed in a rehabilitation center and later wrote of the experience in her autobiography, Little Girl Lost. At 14, Barrymore became emancipated from her mother and moved into her own apartment at age 15.
Because of her reputation as a wild child in trouble, movie roles were slow to materialize. Barrymore made some minor films, including Irreconcilable Differences (1984), Firestarter (1984), and Cat’s Eye (1985). In the 1990s, she began starring in a series of films that exploited her bad-girl image, including Poison Ivy (1992), Guncrazy (1992), and The Amy Fisher Story (1993), a made-for-TV movie based on the Joey Buttafuoco scandal.
In 1994, Barrymore entered into a short-lived marriage to bar owner Jeremy Thomas at age 19. The union lasted for less than three months, and the actor went on to make headlines for more controversial behavior, posing nude for spreads in Playboy and Andy Warhol’s Interview then exposing herself on live television to a shocked David Letterman during his Late Night show birthday celebration. In response to these incidents, Spielberg jokingly gave her a quilt for her 20th birthday, with a note urging her to “cover up.”
Reestablishing Her Image and Career
Barrymore’s luck began to change in 1995 when she co-founded a production company, Flower Films. That same year, she gave a solid performance in the movie Boys on the Side, co-starring with Whoopi Goldberg and Mary-Louise Parker. The following year, she co-starred in Woody Allen’s musical Everybody Says I Love You and had a brief but memorable terror-filled appearance in the blockbuster Scream. She had originally been slated to star as Sidney Prescott—the role which later went to Neve Campbell in the Wes Craven horror film—but time commitments presented this, so she instead made a brief appearance as one of killer Ghostface’s earliest victims.
In 1998, Barrymore proved her strength as a romantic leading lady when she co-starred in the popular comedy The Wedding Singer with Adam Sandler and in Ever After, a version of the Cinderella story, with Anjelica Huston. Both films proved to be box-office successes and earned positive reviews for Barrymore, with Salon critic Charles Taylor writing, “Barrymore has the sort of charm that can make you cockeyed with happiness.” The actor earned her first credit as an executive producer with the likable comedy Never Been Kissed (1999), in which she also starred as a journalist who poses as a high school student. The movie was another box-office hit, and although some reviewers criticized the script, Roger Ebert wrote that Barrymore “illuminates it with sunniness and creates a lovable character. I think this is what’s known as star power.”
Box Office Hits
In 2000, Barrymore produced and starred in the hit film Charlie’s Angels, performing alongside Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, and Bill Murray. Barrymore sought to ensure the characters could be inspiring to young women and that they didn’t “act like men or try to pretend they were masculine” even as they were physically fighting their enemies. The movie became a blockbuster hit, bringing in more than $40 million in its opening weekend and signaling the beginning of true financial success for Flower Films.
After starring in the drama film Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), Barrymore’s next choice for her production company was the dark independent drama Donnie Darko (2001), starring Jake Gyllenhaal. The filmmakers had struggled to secure financing for the movie until Barrymore got involved, and she also accepted a supporting role to bolster the project. Donnie Darko became an instant cult classic and was nominated for more than a dozen independent film awards. In 2002, Barrymore appeared as the love interest of Chuck Barris in the critically acclaimed biopic Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, which starred Sam Rockwell and was directed by George Clooney. The performance helped solidify Barrymore’s reputation as a legitimate film actor.
Barrymore returned to the successful Charlie’s Angels franchise in 2003 with Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. This time, she also brought actor Demi Moore and comedian Bernie Mac on board, and the sequel was another box-office smash. That same year, Flower Films released the comedy Duplex, in which Barrymore starred with Ben Stiller. Reteaming with Adam Sandler, Barrymore starred in 50 First Dates (2004), a romantic comedy again produced by Flower Films. Also in 2004, the actor earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Later Movies and TV Projects
Flower Films—and Barrymore—kept busy over the next few years, producing and acting in Fever Pitch (2005) with Jimmy Fallon, Music and Lyrics (2007) with Hugh Grant, and He’s Just Not That Into You (2009). Additionally, the actor took roles in films like Lucky You (2007), Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008), and the biopic Grey Gardens (2009), in which she co-starred with Jessica Lange.
Also in 2009, Barrymore made her directorial debut with the roller-derby film Whip It, in which she also had a supporting role alongside Elliot Page and Marcia Gay Harden. In 2011, she directed the music video for the Best Coast song “Our Deal,” which featured Chloë Grace Moretz, Miranda Cosgrove, and Shailene Woodley, among others.
Barrymore continued to star in movies including Going the Distance (2011), Big Miracle (2012), Blended (2014), and Miss You Already (2015). Moving into the television industry, she served as an executive producer and star of Netflix’s comedy horror series Santa Clarita Diet, alongside Timothy Olyphant. Barrymore portrayed a real estate agent and typical suburban mother who develops a taste for human flesh after becoming a zombie. The show ran for three seasons beginning in 2017. In 2019, Barrymore joined RuPaul and Faith Hill as judges on the reality talent competition series The World’s Best.
'The Drew Barrymore Show'
In September 2020, Barrymore debuted her syndicated talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show, which is currently in its fourth season on CBS. The show features human interest stories, lifestyle segments, and celebrity guests interviews. The Drew Barrymore Show has been praise for its intimate style and live audience energy, with Vulture writing that it “launched into a void during the pandemic [and] has become a therapy-infused, feel-good viral sensation.”
The series drew criticism in September 2023 when Barrymore announced she would return the series to the air in the middle of the Writers Guild of America strike. Protestors and striking writers picketed the show outside CBS studios in Manhattan on its first two days of taping. Barrymore—who had previously drawn praise for stepping down as host of the MTV Movie & TV Awards in solidarity with the writers’ strike—initially defended her position, but on September 17, she reversed her decision and announced the show wouldn’t resume until after the strike is over. “I have listened to everyone, and I am making the decision to pause the show’s premiere until the strike is over,” Barrymore said in a statement. “I have no words to express my deepest apologies to anyone I have hurt and, of course, to our incredible team who works on the show and has made it what it is today.
Ex-Husbands and Children
Barrymore has had a string of romantic relationships since her short-lived marriage with Jeremy Thomas ended in 1995. In 2000, she became engaged to the eccentric Canadian comic Tom Green of MTV’s The Tom Green Show. After many false wedding rumors (some started by Green himself), the pair eloped in March 2001 but filed for divorce six months later. Following her relationship with Green, she dated Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti and actor Justin Long.
Barrymore wed Will Kopelman in June 2012. The couple had their first child, a daughter named Olive Barrymore Kopelman, in September 2012. In an earlier interview with Haute Living, Barrymore spoke about her excitement for family life. “I can’t wait until I have my children,” she said. “I just want to build fun, great things for my family.” The couple’s second daughter, Frankie Barrymore Kopelman, was born in April 2014. Barrymore and Kopelman decided to part ways in 2016, though they remained on good terms as they devoted themselves to co-parenting their daughters.
In addition to acting, Barrymore has had a successful career as a model, becoming the face of CoverGirl Cosmetics and Gucci Jewelry in 2007. That same year, she was honored on the cover of People magazine’s “100 Most Beautiful People” issue. Also in 2007, Barrymore was named an ambassador against hunger for the World Food Program.
Quotes
- I’ve always said that one night, I’m going to find myself in some field somewhere, I’m standing on grass, and it’s raining, and I’m with the person I love, and I know I’m at the very point I’ve been dreaming of getting to.
- I just want to build fun, great things for my family.
- Life is very interesting... in the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths.
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Colin McEvoy joined the Biography.com staff in 2023, and before that had spent 16 years as a journalist, writer, and communications professional. He is the author of two true crime books: Love Me or Else and Fatal Jealousy. He is also an avid film buff, reader, and lover of great stories.
