Jordan Elizabeth Ladd was born on January 14, 1975, in Hollywood. Ladd is the daughter of actress Cheryl Ladd (Charlie's Angels) and producer David Ladd (The Mod Squad). Her grandfather is acting great Alan Ladd (Shane). A member of Hollywood royalty, petite knockout Jordan Ladd has followed her parents' footsteps into the world of show business. At the tender age of two, Ladd made her acting debut opposite James Garner in a Polaroid commercial. In the early '90s, while still in high school, Ladd began appearing in television films that starred her mother, including The Girl Who Came Between Them (1990) and Broken Promises: Taking Emily Back (1993).

By 1994, Ladd had branched out on her own, guest starring on Saved by the Bell: The New Class and starring opposite Alyssa Milano in the feature Embrace of the Vampire (1994). Ladd then landed the lead role in Gregg Araki's sex-charged teen road film The Doom Generation (1995), but pulled out of the cast at the last minute due to her mother's disapproval -- an action that provoked the film's producers to add "no thanks to Cheryl Ladd" to the film's credits. Yet, despite not appearing in The Doom Generation, the younger Ladd did earn a small role in Araki's follow-up film, Nowhere (1997).

Ladd portrayed Bette Davis' stand-in in the low-budget show business drama Stand-Ins (1997) before starring with her mother in the television film Every Mother's Worst Fear (1998). A year later, Ladd landed her first high-profile role as a popular teenager who tortures Drew Barrymore in Never Been Kissed (1999). Barrymore, who also produced the film, offered Ladd the first crack at a role in her company's big-screen adaptation of Charlie's Angels (2000). Not wanting to be stuck completely in the shadow of her mother, Ladd politely declined. Instead, after being named one of the world's 100 Sexiest Women by Stuff magazine, Ladd starred as a strung-out actress vying for an Academy Award in E!'s first original movie, Best Actress (2000).

Unfortunately, Jordan followed this clever over-the-top comic performance with The Deadly Look of Love, a trashy television film, and The Specials (2000), a silly feature about the private lives of superheroes. Yet, over the next few years, Ladd established herself as an independent darling, appearing in films like Boy's Life 3 (2000) (opposite a few other young actors with well-known surnames, Jason Gould, Alexis Arquette, and Sara Gilbert) and in the David Lynch short film Darkened Room (2002).