Here’s How This Little Girl Became The Richest Actress On The Planet

Few Hollywood careers take a turn as dramatic—or as successful—as Jami Gertz’s. The former teen star who lit up the screen in Sixteen Candles has traveled a path that looks nothing like the typical celebrity arc. And she knows it.

“I understand,” she told The Hollywood Reporter years ago. “This isn’t your standard Hollywood story.”

That’s putting it mildly. Gertz went from 1980s fan favorite to one of the most powerful women in professional sports, co-owning an NBA franchise alongside her billionaire husband, Tony Ressler.

Her launch into show business happened almost by accident. At just 16, she entered a talent search and suddenly found herself cast on the early ’80s sitcom Square Pegs, sharing the screen with a young Sarah Jessica Parker.

“I was discovered at a search and tossed straight into the job,” she later explained on Resilience with Richard Cabral. “I didn’t question it—I just went forward. It was an unusual path.”

Unusual, yes, but life-changing. “By the time I was 16, I was bringing in more money than my dad,” she recalled. “That shifts the family dynamic. It shifts everything.”

The roles kept coming. Gertz became familiar to households across America thanks to parts in The Facts of Life, Dreams, Sixteen Candles, The Lost Boys and Less Than Zero. Her career was booming, but her personal life soon took an equally significant turn.

In 1986, her publicist introduced her to Tony Ressler, a rapidly rising businessman. They met at a dinner party at his Los Angeles apartment. Ressler didn’t recognize her from television or film—but he definitely noticed her.

Public perception has long assumed that Gertz married into wealth. She says that narrative couldn’t be further from the truth.

“People assume I married a rich guy,” she told THR. “But I’m making far more than Tony when we met. I bought our first house. I paid for our first trip. I married him because I loved him.”

The pair married in 1989 and spent the ’90s and early 2000s building careers that would make them one of the most successful power couples in entertainment and finance. Gertz continued acting—landing roles in Twister, Jersey Girl, Sibs, Still Standing and a guest appearance on Ally McBeal that scored her an Emmy nomination. Ressler, meanwhile, cofounded Apollo Management in 1990 and later launched Ares Management, now valued at billions.

They also built a family, raising three sons: Oliver, Nicholas and Theo. And Gertz expanded her résumé further in 2007 by launching Lime Orchard Productions. The company’s film A Better Life earned Demián Bichir an Oscar nomination, though Gertz has candidly acknowledged the production company was not a financial win.

Then came their boldest move yet. In 2015, the couple purchased the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks for a staggering $720 million. Gertz vividly remembers the moment Ressler finalized the deal from their closet—his makeshift war room.

“He looked at me and said, ‘Are we really doing this?’” she recalled. “I was terrified. And then we both started yelling, ‘We just bought a basketball team!’”

Today, Gertz splits her time between NBA ownership duties and the occasional acting role—most recently appearing in Difficult People and I Want You Back. But she’s embraced a quieter lifestyle, one that she says feels right for now.

“It felt like the exact moment to pause acting,” she admitted. “I love the work deeply, and it’s given me so much. But stepping back has given me room to appreciate everything in a new way.”

Sources: E News