Tracey Needham is a
Texas-born
American actress best known as Paige Thatcher on
Life Goes On then on the first season of
JAG as Lt. Meg Austin.
Biography
Needham was born on
March 28,
1967, in
Dallas, Texas, where her father was a homebuilder. When she was eight, the Needhams moved to
Denver,
Colorado, and her father's work dictated that the family move back and forth between the two cities. Needham was fully grown by the eighth grade, and later, when she took to heart a high-school theater director's snippy advice that she was too tall to appear on stage, she worked on the technical crew instead. After her high-school graduation, Needham traveled through
Europe and
Australia. In 1988, she went to
Los Angeles to study acting and audition for roles. She made her TV acting debut on
Jake and the Fatman. After a few more acting classes, she landed the part of Paige Thatcher, the big sister, on
Life Goes On, beginning in the series' second season.