After occasionally appearing alongside bestie Sutton Stracke, Jennifer Tilly officially joined The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills crew as a friend on Season 14, and since then, she’s opened up about her past marriage to The Simpsons creator Sam Simon, her acting career, and how she and her sister, Meg Tilly, are the second set of sisters to both be nominated for Academy Awards.
During a feature with The New York Times in March 2025, Jennifer spoke more about Meg — this time, about their challenging upbringing.
“When we were little, we used to move every year,” the Chucky actress said about growing up with Meg and her other two siblings, Rebecca and Steve.
Jennifer and Meg’s parents, Patricia Tilly and Harry Chan, split up when they were very young. The siblings were largely raised in Canada with Patricia and her stepfather, John Ward.
Speaking about her stepfather’s job, Jennifer said, “They told us growing up that he painted post offices and that, when he finished painting one post office, we had to go look for others. My sister has her dark theories. She thinks they may have been run out of town.”
Meg spoke about the kids’ upbringing in a phone call with the outlet as well.
“We could never have friends sleep over when we were growing up,’’ she explained, “because there wouldn’t be enough for everyone to eat.”
Who is Meg Tilly?
Jennifer’s younger sister is an actress and writer. Meg has appeared in movies like Psycho II, The Big Chill, Impulse, and Agnes of God.
She’s also published numerous novels, including Singing Songs, Gemma, and Porcupine, First Time, A Taste of Heaven, Behind the Scenes, The Runaway Heiress, and the Solace Island trilogy since the ’90s.
What movies were Jennifer Tilly and sister Meg Tilly nominated at the Academy Awards for?
The RHOBH friend was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category at the 1995 Academy Awards for her work in Bullets Over Broadway.
Jennifer’s sister, Meg, was nominated in the same category about a decade earlier for her role in the 1985 movie, Agnes of God.
As Jennifer said on RHOBH Season 14, Episode 13, she and Meg are just one of two sets of sisters who have both been nominated for Academy Awards (the other pair is Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland).
“Yes, and we’re the only two Chinese-American people that were nominated also,” she told Erika Jayne after she asked about the sisters’ nominations.
She reflected on the experience of attending the 1996 award show as well.
“It was a very, very, very long time ago,” she told the rest of the cast. “You get to go to the big show. It was very nice. Gregory Peck stepped on my train. Gregory Peck, yes! I wore Isaac Mizrahi.”
See what Jennifer and the other RHOBH ladies wore to the Season 14 reunion.