Troy Byer is an American psychologist, author, director, screenwriter and actress.
Life and career
Born in New York City to an African-American mother and an Ashkenazi Jewish father, Byer spent the first part of her career working in the entertainment industry. She began her acting career with a role on the children's program Sesame Street when she was four years old. She studied acting and psychobiology at City University of New York's School for the Arts. After landing a bit part in Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club, Byer moved to Los Angeles, where she became a regular on the ABC prime-time soap operaDynasty in 1986, playing Jackie Deveraux, the daughter of Diahann Carroll's character Dominique Deveraux. She went on to earn ShoWest's Newcomer of the Year award for her leading role in the feature Rooftops. Since then, Byer has acted in features such as Disorderlies, The Five Heartbeats as Babydoll, Weekend at Bernie's II, Eddie starring Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Altman's The Gingerbread Man starring Kenneth Branagh and Robert Downey Jr., and John Q starring Denzel Washington. In 1997 she made her screenwriting debut with B*A*P*S, starring Halle Berry. Unhappy with how her script had been changed during the course of filming, the following year she decided to direct her next screenplay, Let's Talk About Sex, also playing a starring role. Byer made a trailer and took it to the Sundance Film Festival, where she handed it out to film executives. The film was quickly picked up by Fine Line Features. She next wrote and directed Love Don't Co$t a Thing for Warner Brothers, based on the hit 1987 movie Can't Buy Me Love. Byer is an active member of Agape International Spiritual Center and an advocate for the foster care system, a system she once belonged to. Byer is also the author of self-help books entitled How To Be Ex-Free: 9 Keys To Happiness After Heartbreak and How To Be A Responsibly Powerful Bitch. She is the mother of a son, Jordan Burg, with her ex-husband Mark Burg.
