Jen, played by 16 year-old Michelle Williams, is the presumed New York sophisticate beauty
who catches Dawson's eye and possibly his heart. Moving to Capeside to help her
grandparents after her grandfather's illness, Jen is the proverbial new girl in town who tries
to fit in under her grandmother's watchful eye, but can't quite beat all the consequences of the
small- town mentality that her grandmother represents. Not intimidated by Joey's close
relationship with Dawson, however, Jen transforms the dynamic due into a potentially
troublesome triangle.
 
In her first starring role in a series, Michelle Williams has already starred in numerous feature
films and television projects.

The proverbial small town girl, Williams was born and raised in rural Kalispell, Mont., before
moving with her family to San Diego when she was 10 years old. She became involved in
community theater productions and was soon commuting to Los Angeles for professional
auditions.

At age 14, Williams made her big-screen debut in the 1994 family film "Lassie," and was soon
cast as the young alien in the film "Species." Most recently, she finished production on the
upcoming dramatic feature "A Thousand Acres" starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Jennifer Jason
Leigh, Jason Robards and Jessica Lange. In television, she starred in the television movie "A
Mother's Justice."

In her free time, 17-year-old Williams is an avid reader, with her current favorite authors
being Hermann Hesse, Dostoyevsky and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. She also enjoys boxing, which
feeds into her early childhood fantasy of becoming the first female heavyweight champion of
the world.