Meet Jewel Shepard, an American writer, photographer, and actress who’s known for Party Camp (1987) and Return of the Living Dead (1985).

She kicked things off with small TV gigs before jumpin’ into movies with The Junkman (1982) by H.B. Halicki. After that, she racked up roles in over a dozen B-movies. In 1992, she leaned into her B-movie cred, droppin’ Invasion of the B-Girls, a book packed with chats with cult stars like Kitten Natividad, Linnea Quigley, Yvette Vickers, Haji, and Mary Woronov. She’s also penned pieces for big names like Premiere, Cosmopolitan, Details, and The Associated Press.

In 1996, she spilled the tea on the gritty side of filmmaking and her time in adult entertainment with her autobiography, If I’m So Famous, How Come Nobody’s Ever Heard of Me?.

Since 2011, Jewel’s been battlin’ invasive breast cancer, goin’ through chemo, lymph node removal, and a double mastectomy.