Teri Polo

About

Theresa Elizabeth Polo (born June 1, 1969) is an American actress. She starred as Pamela Martha Focker in the Meet the Parents franchise, Helen Santos in The West Wing, Christine Daaé in Phantom of the Opera (1990), and played the role of police officer Stef Adams Foster in the Freeform series The Fosters (2013–2018) and its spinoff Good Trouble (2019–2024).

Theresa Elizabeth Polo was born on June 1, 1969, in Dover, Delaware, to Jane (née Gentry), a homemaker, and Vincent Polo, a stereo systems designer. She is of Italian, English, and German descent. She studied ballet for 13 years beginning at age six. By age 13, she was attending New York’s School of American Ballet. After winning a modeling contest, she moved to New York City at age 17 to pursue an acting career.

Polo’s acting debut, in 1987, was in the role of Kristin Larsen on the ABC daytime soap opera Loving. The following year, she earned a role in primetime on the short-lived CBS series TV 101. She also starred in the 1990 miniseries The Phantom of the Opera as Christine Daaé. In 1994, Polo became a regular cast member on the last season of Northern Exposure. She later played Detective Ash on…