Teri Polo might now be best known for her comedic roles in Meet the Parents (2000) and Meet the Fockers (2004), but she showed off an equal talent for the sci-fi genre in The Arrival opposite Charlie Sheen's Zane Zaminsky, an astronomer who discovers intelligent alien life.
Join us for a catch up on Teri's career, the first same-sex TV wedding post DOMA overhaul and what The Arrival star is up to now.
© Getty ImagesWho is Teri Polo?
Teri Polo is an actress best known for her role in the Meet the Parents trilogy. She appeared opposite Ben Stiller's Greg Focker as his girlfriend Pam Byrnes in Meet the Parents (2000) and Meet the Fockers (2004) as his wife. The couple takes on a new adventure in Little Fockers (2010) with two children introduced to the wacky family antics.
She also starred as one half of The Fosters leading lesbian couple opposite Sherri Saum between 2013-2018 who raise a blended family of adopted, biological and foster children.
© WireImageTeri has two children
Personal life
The actress married her first husband, photographer Anthony Moore, on 20 April 1997. The couple share one child, Griffin, born in 2002, and divorced in April 2005.
The Meet the Parents star met her second long-term partner, who later became the drummer for Tears for Fears, in 2004, per People magazine, on-set for a music video. She gave the drummer her number and he called her the very same night. The couple share one child, daughter Hayley, who was born in 2007. They split five years later in 2012.
© Disney General Entertainment ConTeri Polo won a modelling contest associated with Seventeen magazine
The actress' rise to fame
Teri Polo is one of three children born to Jae and Vincent Polo. She was born in 1969 in Dover, Delaware, and grew up alongside her two brothers, Mike and Steve. Performing was an early passion and Teri quickly found success, studying ballet for 12 years and dancing with the Delaware Regional Ballet at 15.
After she won a modelling contest at 16 years-old, Teri dropped out of high school aged 17. Her first onscreen role came around a year later in 1986 as Kristin Larsen in Loving.
© Disney General Entertainment ConStef and Lena's wedding in The Fosters was a groundbreaking moment
Wider career
Following her debut in Loving, Teri appeared in 17 episodes of TV 101 and starred as Christine Daeé alongside Burt Lancaster and Charles Dance in a two-episode adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera (1990). Between 1988 and 2025, Teri has maintained a consistently active career, performing in dozens of projects.
One of Teri's notable roles was as foster mother and police officer Stef Adams Foster in The Fosters which ran between 2013 and 2018. The series featured Stef's wedding to partner Lena in 2013.
© Getty ImagesTeri Polo stars alongside Charlie Sheen in The Arrival (1996)
The Arrival
The Arrival follows Charlie Sheen as astronomer Zane Zaminski on a quest to investigate a radio transmission from space after his boss ignores the signal and Zane ends up being fired from his job. With the help of Lindsay Crouse's climate scientist Ilana Green, he investigates mysterious signals emitted from a power plant in Mexico.
The movie grossed just over $14 million at the US box office and included striking sci-fi imagery, including what critic Roger Ebert calls the movie's "niftiest visual moment", namely, "a long-distance shot of [Teri] flailing like a wounded insect in the center of a white satellite dish".
© Getty ImagesCharlie Sheen counts Rob Lowe and Sean Penn among his high-school friends
Charlie Sheen's childhood and early career
Charlie Sheen was destined for the screen. He was born on 3 September 1965 in New York to actor father Martin Sheen, just as he was breaking onto Broadway. Charlie is one of four children, Martin and wife Janet Templeton sharing actor children Emilio Estevez, Renée Estevez and Ramon Estevez.
During his time at high school in Santa Monica, he produced and starred in several amateur projects alongside friends Rob Lowe and Sean Penn. He broke into the industry after high school playing appropriately enough, a high school student in Red Dawn (1984). His true start onscreen came in Oliver Stone’s Oscar-winning feature Platoon (1986) as a young soldier in a moral crisis.
© FilmMagicThe 'Platoon' star was been married a total of 3 times and has 5 children
Inside his personal life
The actor has been married three times and has five children. He was first married to model Donna Peele in 1995, tying the knot six weeks after they met while filming a commercial in New York. He met his second wife, Denise Richards, on the set of Good Advice in 2000. The couple had their first date in 2001 and married less than months later, welcoming two children during their marriage, daughters Sami and Lola Rose. They divorced in 2006.
His most recent marriage was to real estate investor Brooke Mueller. The couple said ‘I do’ on 31 May 2008 and share two boys, twins Bob and Max. Martin and Brooke separated less than three years later in 2011. The actor shares his first child, daughter Cassandra who was born in 1984, with high school sweetheart Paula Profit.
© Variety via Getty ImagesCharlie Sheen released a book and documentary detailing his history of partying and addiction
Where is he now?
Charlie starred in a few features like The Arrival (1996) and Shadow Conspiracy (1997), returning more regularly to our screens when he was cast in ABC sitcom Spin City in 2000 and from there asked to star in CBS hit Two and a Half Men (2003), where he briefly held the record of highest-paid actor on television at the time.
Since then, he’s fronted sitcom Anger Management (2012-2014) and appeared as himself on established series like Family Guy (2010) and The Big Bang Theory (2008).
He has also opened up on his past struggles with addiction, releasing a memoir in 2025 entitled The Book of Sheen and a Netflix documentary AKA Charlie Sheen focussed on his tumultuous past in September the same year.
