Date of Birth

2 December 1981, Hollywood, Florida, USA

Birth Name

Bethany Joy Lenz

Nickname

Joy

Height

5' 4" (1.63 m)

Mini Biography

Bethany Joy Lenz was born in Hollywood Florida, an only child of Robert George Lenz (a history teacher and therapist) and Catharine Malcolm Holt Shepard (a personnel manager and entrepreneur). She is best known for her role on - the WB hit One Tree Hill (2003) - as "Haley James Scott", wife to James Lafferty's "Nathan" and childhood mate of Chad Michael Murray's "Lucas".

Prior to One Tree Hill (2003), Bethany spent most of her acting career on the stage. She has called Musical theater her passion, and has performed in various productions of "Annie", "The Wizard of Oz", "Gypsy", "Cinderella", "CATS for Cats" etc...

After moving from Texas to New York, Bethany portrayed "Michelle Bauer Santos" on CBS's Guiding Light (1952). When her two year contract ended there, she left New York and moved to Los Angeles and guest starred on shows like Charmed (1998), Felicity (1998) and The Guardian (2001). She also appeared in Los Angeles stage productions of "The Outsiders" - directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman and "Happy Days" (as Pinky Tuscadero) - directed by Garry Marshall.

After moving from North Carolina (One Tree Hill), Bethany spent a year raising her daughter Maria before taking any more roles. Although she started an internet rotating novel 'Diamond Gothic' with 'Abigail Spencer' and 'JC Coccoli' on 'Hello Giggles.

Bethany came back strong and guest starred on shows like Men at Work (2012) and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000), joined the cast on Sock Monkee Therapy (2013) and Dexter (2006), and got her own TV show Songbyrd (2014). She also joined and performed original songs on Rock the Schools Concert (2012) and recorded several songs in 2012 (Album: 'Then Slowly Grows') and 2013 (Album: 'Your Woman').

She is an accomplished singer with an four-octave range, trained in New York by Richard Barrett, the director of the Brooklyn College of Opera, and in Los Angeles by renowned voice teacher Eric Vetro (Jennifer Garner, John Stamos and Ewan McGregor).

Trivia

• Released the limited CD "Preincarnate" featuring eight original tracks (2002)
• The unusual spelling of her name was adopted in her early teens.
• Is also a talented musician and singer with a four-octave range.
• Goes by her middle name "Joy."
• Impressed producers so much during her three week stint as "Teenage Reva Clone" on Guiding Light (1952), she was re-hired later that year in the contract role of "Michelle Bauer" on the daytime serial.
• Her favorite TV shows are: Joan of Arcadia (2003), Alias (2001), I Love Lucy (1951), Lost (2004), Arrested Development (2003) and Friends (1994).
• Her prized possession is Journals.
• Since leaving Guiding Light (1952) in 2000, she has kept in touch with co-stars Tammy Blanchard (Drew) and Paul Anthony Stewart (Danny).
• Performed with Tyler Hilton, Gavin DeGraw and The Wreckers (Michelle Branch and Jessica Harp) on the "One Tree Hill Tour".
• Played, on guitar, and sang the National Anthem in the One Tree Hill (2003) cast Super Bowl in early 2004.
• Changed her last name from Lenz to Galeotti when she got married. It was reflected on the credits of One Tree Hill (2003). She has changed her name back to Lenz following her split from her husband.
• Starred/worked with Richard Lee Jackson in Bring It on: Again (2004) and married Richard Lee Jackson's band mate Michael Galeotti from their band Enation.
• Gave birth to her 1st child at age 29, a daughter named Maria Rose Galeotti in February 2011. Child's father is her ex-husband, Michael Galeotti.
• Works heavily with Love146, an organization working to end child sex slavery and exploitation. In May 2011, she started a Tread on Trafficking campaign to raise money for the organization.
• Started an online boutique called "Lark" to raise money for charity. Every design featured on the website is an original by Joy.
• In 2008 formed a band known as "Everly". Several of Everly's songs were featured on the show, One Tree Hill (2003), as part of Haley's musical performances on tour. In late November 2012, confirmed via Twitter that "Everly" was no longer together.
• Writing a musical stage version of Nicholas Sparks' "The Notebook", with good friend and Grammy-nominated producer, Ron Aniello.
• Wrote a 1920s era rotating internet novel called "Diamond Gothic" with actress Abigail Spencer and comedian JC Coccoli.
• Close friends with One Tree Hill (2003) costars Sophia Bush, Shantel VanSanten and Paul Johansson.
• One Tree Hill (2003) costar Shantel VanSanten was in the delivery room when she gave birth to her daughter, Maria.
• Took the "Julius Caesar" book her character Haley gives Lucas in season one of One Tree Hill (2003) when the show ended. She had the entire cast and crew sign it.
• Good friends with writer Nicholas Sparks.
• Close friends with actress Abigail Spencer and actress Kelly Overton.
• Announced engagement to Enation band member Michael Galeotti. [November 2005]
• Recorded the album 'Then Slowly Grows' in 2012 and 'Your Woman' in 2013. Also expecting a second edition of 'Your Woman' in 2014.
• Trained at Dallas Young Actors Studio in Dallas, Texas.
• When Joy was 4 years old she sang her first solo at the Carpenter's Church in Lakeland, Florida.
• Has a step-sister named Candace and a half brother named Sam.
• Started a podcast with One Tree Hill co-stars, Hilarie Burton and Sophia Bush, titled "Drama Queens" in 2021.

Quotes

• I never rule anything out, I just follow where I'm lead.
• I don't party. I'm a total homebody. I like hanging out with my cat and I've actually been known to stay home and knit.
• Joining One Tree Hill (2003) has been: "Like summer camp, only it's really cold in Wilmington, North Carolina! I've never lived in a small town, but I always pictured myself in a small house, drinking lemonade on my porch swing. Now I have the porch!".
• Favorite holiday: Christmas. "It will always be number one on my list. You feel cozy for like two months straight. You sing songs, all the stories look exactly the same. There's no other holiday where everybody decorates. There's a joy and a spirit of excitement that's in the air around Christmastime. It's the best."
• I am not a people person. It's not that I am shy, but I am more comfortable in an atmosphere of one-on-one. I hate crowds and parties.
• That's the exciting thing. I still don't know what I'm going to be. I love acting. I would love to be an English teacher. I would love to be a housewife and have a chateau in the South of France, I would love to be a singer that travels to cafes around different towns. I am loving to live out my life right now and see where it goes, it's exciting.
• I guess I've sort of always wanted to be an actress, except when I was five, which, I did want to be the Queen of England.
• Musical theater is oh, my dream. My passion. Music is in my veins. Just being able to mix that passion with my other passion, for acting, would be unbelievable. I have to brush up on my dancing, but I'd definitely love to hit Broadway.
• Music's something I'll be doing for the rest of my life, whether I'm just playing guitar in my living room or whether I'm playing for 3,000 people.
• I am an actor. God forbid I say this, but I would be doing it for free because I love it. If I could, I'd do this every day of my life.
• I am a down-home girl. I love home and a German shepherd and an old red pickup truck from the '50s. I would love an old house in Alabama with little kids running in the yard.
• Lies about your physical appearance in Hollywood creep in like a nasty serpent in your bed. It's awful. "Who's got the best outfit?", "Who's makeup artist is terrible?", etc... I've really been learning that I have to choose to believe that it is not my clothes or my hair or my makeup that is going to make me shine. It's a battle I fight everyday with myself.
• I think I started to see that acting was a really great catharsis for me. I've always been really creative and artistic, but I think acting was something that I could pour my creative energy into, and it took all of me. To this day, I haven't found that feeling anywhere else.
• I have no desire to be a star.
• My personal style is just really easy, non fashion concerned. I have a lot of jeans and tee shirts.
• So much of my heart is in my music. If you pay close attention to the lyrics, you can get a much better perception of who I am when my guard is down.
• I can't cook or do crafts. And put a soccer ball or a football in my hand, and I wouldn't know what to do with it, but if you give me a creative outlet, usually, I'd be able to figure something out.
• I eat peanut butter, Swiss cheese and lettuce sandwiches. Really, they're very good!
• My dream car is a red '57 Chevrolet pickup. So I'd take a road trip in that for a day, play classic rock music the whole time and then stop at a diner at midnight for some apple pie.
• I had a lot of creative energy when I was young. I was not the best student because I was always challenging what the teachers were saying, rather than just accepting it.
• I love being home on rainy days! I usually write and sneak in an I Love Lucy rerun!
• I love singing. Getting on stage... it's like reaching in to the bottom of my soul and bringing it right up. I love it.
• Music is something that is in you. You can touch people with your music even if you're working a job at starbucks or working a desk job.