Jennifer Laura Thompson is an American stage actress and singer. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre from the University of Michigan and graduated in 1991. Thompson made her Broadway debut in 1998 as Ariel Moore in the original cast of Footloose. She also originated the role of Hope Cladwell in both the off-Broadway and Broadway productions of Urinetown. She received a Tony Award nomination for the 2002 Best Leading Actress in a Musical category for her performance as Hope in Urinetown; the award went to Sutton Foster for her performance in Thoroughly Modern Millie. She was then cast as Kristin Chenoweth's replacement in the Broadway hit musical Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre. Her first performance took place on July 20, 2004 and she continued in the role for over ten months, departing the company on May 29, 2005. She was replaced by Megan Hilty, who had served as her standby. Thompson would later return to the theatre on October 27, 2008, to take part in a one-off performance titled "The Yellow Brick Road Not Taken", a presentation of rough scenes and songs cut from early drafts of Wicked. [More at Wikipedia]

December 5th, 1969 in Southfield (Age 54)