Jennifer Love Hewitt: From Del Blaine in The Tuxedo to Maddie Buckley on 9-1-1
In The Tuxedo (2002), Jennifer Love Hewitt played Del Blaine, a rookie secret agent partnered with Jackie Chan’s reluctant chauffeur-turned-spy. The film opened on September 27, 2002, and Kevin Donovan directed it. The part came at a crossroads for her. She was a teen-drama star and a horror-franchise lead who was looking for a way into big-studio comedy and action.
That role is one stop in a career that has run more than three decades across television, film and music. Born on February 21, 1979, in Waco, Texas, Hewitt is now 47. As of October 2026 she is back on screen in the tenth season of 9-1-1.
A child performer in Los Angeles
Hewitt began performing as a young child in Texas. In 1989 a talent scout recommended that she and her mother move to Los Angeles, according to Biography.com. She worked in commercials and landed a regular part on Disney’s Kids Incorporated, a music-driven series that suited her singing and dancing.
She released her first album, Love Songs, in 1992, and appeared in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit in 1993. Several short-lived television series followed before the break she needed.
The Party of Five and Last Summer years
In 1995 Hewitt joined Fox’s Party of Five in its second season as Sarah Reeves Merrin. The show won the Golden Globe for best drama in 1996, and she became a household name. Her 1997 lead role as Julie James in the horror hit I Know What You Did Last Summer made her a film star. A sequel followed in 1998, the same year she played Amanda Beckett in the teen comedy Can’t Hardly Wait.
Her spin-off Time of Your Life, which sent Sarah to New York, lasted only about half of the 1998-99 season. Music ran alongside the acting. A self-titled album arrived in 1996, and BareNaked came out in 2002 and charted in the United States.
Testing the grown-up film star
The early 2000s were Hewitt’s attempt to move past teen roles. She played the title role in the television film The Audrey Hepburn Story (2000). She then joined Sigourney Weaver and Gene Hackman in the con-artist comedy Heartbreakers (2001).
The Tuxedo came next. Chan played Jimmy Tong, who wears a gadget-laden suit that makes him a fighter. Hewitt’s Del was the by-the-book agent who has to work out why her new partner behaves so strangely. Michael J. Wilson and Michael J. Leeson wrote the screenplay, and Jason Isaacs played the injured agent whose place Tong takes. Reviews were mixed, but the film gave Hewitt a studio comedy-action credit. She followed it with the live-action Garfield in 2004.
Ghost Whisperer and the television comeback
In 2005 Hewitt took the lead in CBS’s Ghost Whisperer as Melinda Gordon, a newlywed who can talk to the dead. The series ran until 2010. She won Saturn Awards for best actress on television in 2007 and 2008, and she also worked as a producer and directed episodes.
She then led Lifetime’s The Client List, playing Riley Parks, a Texas single mother. The pilot film earned her a Golden Globe nomination, and the series ran from 2012 to 2013. She played FBI agent Kate Callahan on Criminal Minds from 2014 to 2015.
9-1-1 and a return to Last Summer
Hewitt joined 9-1-1 in its second season, which began on September 23, 2018, on Fox. Her character Maddie, the sister of firefighter Buck, arrives in Los Angeles after leaving an abusive relationship. Maddie became a nurse turned emergency dispatcher. Hewitt told Awards Focus that she felt the part came to her at the right time, because she needed to play Maddie as an adult with real experience.
In July 2025 she reprised Julie James in the new I Know What You Did Last Summer, directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. In the series she took a double turn on January 15, 2026, in the episode “War,” playing Maddie and voicing the rogue AI operator Sara.
On October 13, 2026, Awards Radar published a joint interview with Hewitt and co-star Oliver Stark about the Buckley siblings. Season ten began on October 15, 2026, on ABC, and the show streams on Hulu.
FAQ
What is Jennifer Love Hewitt best known for?
Most viewers know her from Party of Five, the I Know What You Did Last Summer films, Ghost Whisperer and now 9-1-1.
What was her role in The Tuxedo?
She played Del Blaine, a CSA agent new to the job, opposite Jackie Chan’s Jimmy Tong.
Is she still acting?
Yes. She plays Maddie in 9-1-1, which returned for its tenth season on October 15, 2026.
