Jessica Brooke Capshaw (born August 9, 1976) is an American actress. She is known for her role as Jamie Stringer in The Practice and Arizona Robbins on the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy. She was introduced in Grey's Anatomy's fifth season as an attending surgeon and the new head of pediatric surgery. Originally contracted to appear in three episodes, Capshaw's contract was extended to the remainder of the fifth season, with her becoming a series regular in the sixth season.
Capshaw was born August 9, 1976 in Columbia, Missouri, the daughter of actress and producer Kate Capshaw, and Robert Capshaw, a sales manager, marketing director, business executive, and high school principal. She is the stepdaughter of director Steven Spielberg, whom her mother married when Capshaw was fifteen years old. Her father is from a Jewish family, whereas her mother converted to Judaism.
Capshaw graduated from Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles in 1994. She then enrolled at Brown University, where she appeared in productions of Arcadia and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. She graduated in 1998 with a B.A. in English. During summers, she attended classes at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) in London, where she appeared as Puck in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.