She's in all your favourite movies, but who is she?

She’s what you’d call a serial supporting actress.

When you think of her, the phrase “always a bridesmaid” comes to mind.

She’s made an entire career out of playing the “best friend”.

You’ve probably seen a dozen of her performances — but, chances are, you don’t know her name.

This week she celebrated 40th birthday — and we’ll be damned if we let another year go by without adequate praise for this icon of our generation.

In celebration of her birth, we have decided to give our BFF the party tribute post she deserves.

Ladies and gents: the career-defining moments of the one-and-only JUDY GREER.

Jawbreaker

Greer played Fern — the nerd-turned-hot bitch enemy of “satan-in-heels” Courtney (played by Rose McGowan).

The plot: Three “mean girls” kill their friend in a botched prank, and Judy Greer blackmails them into making her popular. In short: pure brilliance.

What Women Want

In a film that probably should never have happened — Greer plays the invisible office assistant “not beautiful enough” to draw the eye of Mel Gibson.

But (spoiler alert) Gibson and Greer’s characters finally cross paths after Gibson gets electrocuted and can subsequently read the minds of women.

Let’s take a moment to let that sink in.

The Wedding Planner

Greer put in a stellar performance in the film that gave birth to thousands of aspiring wedding planners.

She was so good as J-Lo‘s assistant, she even managed to steal the show from Matthew McConaughey‘s elaborate dye-job.

Now that, my friends, was no easy feat.

Suddenly 30

I imagine it would have been hard to compete with Jennifer Garner‘s dimples in this coming-of-age classic.

But Greer does her darnedest to capture the dark side of the dog-eat-dog world that is the magazine industry.

She is fierce and scary and the kind of character you sort of, maybe hope will die. But without the Greer, this film would have been the equivalent of a sickly sweet Katy Perry film clip.

27 Dresses

By 2008, we’ve seen Judy Greer as the mean girl best friend, the awkward best friend, and the invisible best friend.

In 27 Dresses we meet my favourite archetype — the dry-witted, sexually adventurous best friend.  (Do you hear that Academy? In the biz we call that ‘range’.)

Sorry, Katherine Heigl. You may have spawned a new generation of Benny and the Jets fans, but we know who had the best lines in this film.

Arrested Development

Like most great actors and actresses of the 2000s, Greer has now officially made the jump to the small screen.

While Greer has finally found her lead role in the FX series Married, her supporting role as Kitty Sanchez — the positively psycho personal assistant in Arrested Development — is definitely Emmy-worthy.

Get more Judy Greer goodness in this gallery:

What’s your favourite Judy Greer movie?

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