Monica Potter

Monica Potter is an American actress best known for her roles in Con Air, Patch Adams, Saw and the NBC drama Parenthood. Potter was raised in Cleveland as the second of four daughters. She attended Villa Angela Academy before graduating from Euclid High School. She began acting at the Cleveland Play House as a child and also worked as a model and appeared in commercials as a teenager.

Potter moved to Los Angeles in 1994 and made her screen debut on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless. She made her feature film debut in Bulletproof in 1996 before landing roles in Con Air (1997) and Patch Adams (1998). Her early film credits also included Without Limits (1998), Along Came a Spider (2001) and Saw (2004).

Her later notable credits include The Last House on the Left (2009), The Girl in the Pool (2024) and Running on Empty (2024). Potter joined the cast of Parenthood in 2010 as Kristina Braverman. Her performance on the show earned her a Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Drama Supporting Actress. She also received a Golden Globe nomination for the role in 2014. She founded Monica Potter Home, a Cleveland-based home goods and skincare company, in 2012.

Potter married Tom Potter in 1990, and they welcomed two sons, Daniel (born in 1990) and Liam (born in 1994), before divorcing in 1998. She later wed orthopedic surgeon Daniel Christopher Allison in 2005, the same year they welcomed daughter Molly. The couple filed for divorce in 2018.