Jamie Lee Curtis first became famous running from Michael Myers. Decades later, she is helping decide what gets made.
What happened to Jamie Lee Curtis after Halloween, True Lies, and Freaky Friday? She built a career that now includes producing, major awards, returning characters, and new television roles.
As of November 3, 2026, she is still working. Her recent projects include Scarpetta on Prime Video and NBC’s newly launched Newlyweds. Talk about retirement has accompanied a busy period, rather than a completed departure.
How Halloween Became the Beginning of a Much Bigger Career
Curtis played Laurie Strode in John Carpenter’s Halloween in 1978. The film made her a recognizable horror star, but comedy soon revealed another side of her.
Trading Places, A Fish Called Wanda, and True Lies allowed her to combine physical confidence with sharp comic timing. In 2003, Freaky Friday introduced her to another generation opposite Lindsay Lohan.
Disney’s career profile traces those shifts from Laurie Strode to the body-swapping mother Tess Coleman.
The roles were different enough that audiences could each have their own version of Curtis. Some remembered a survivor. Others remembered a spy’s wife or a mother suddenly behaving like a teenager.
That variety became an advantage when the pace of her career changed.
Why Some Years Looked Quieter Than Others
Curtis has described making practical choices about the work she accepted while raising her children.
In Business Insider’s account of her 2025 Cannes Lions appearance, she explained how advertising work let her spend less time away on film sets and more time with her daughters.
A lower movie profile therefore did not automatically mean she had stopped working. It could mean choosing a different kind of job.
Photo: Greg2600 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0. Cropped as supplied.
That distinction also matters in the story of Melanie Griffith’s life after Working Girl, where family and changing opportunities affected the shape of a career.
Curtis eventually returned to some of her best-known territory. The 2018 Halloween brought Laurie back as an older woman shaped by the violence she had survived.
The Bigger Change Was Moving Into Producing
The more lasting shift involved control over future work.
In a 2021 Vogue interview, Curtis discussed producing and developing projects herself when the roles coming her way no longer excited her. Her company had also secured a first-look deal with Blumhouse.
That move gave her a role before a camera started rolling. She could help choose material and assemble a project, instead of only considering parts someone else offered.
Scarpetta shows where that change led. Based on Patricia Cornwell’s novels, the series stars Nicole Kidman as forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta.
Curtis plays Kay’s sister, Dorothy Farinelli. Amazon’s official series guide also names both women as executive producers.
The first season’s eight episodes are available on Prime Video. Curtis is part of its family drama on screen and its creative leadership behind the scenes.
Her Oscar and Emmy Arrived Decades After Her Breakthrough
Curtis’s later career also brought recognition that she had never received during her early stardom.
At the 2023 Academy Awards, she won Supporting Actress for Everything Everywhere All at Once. The Academy’s official ceremony record confirms the award.
Her performance as tax inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdre belonged to a film built around strange transformations, emotional leaps, and an unconventional family story.
Then The Bear gave her another demanding role as Donna Berzatto. The Television Academy records her 2024 Emmy win for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.
Photo: GabboT / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Both awards arrived more than four decades after Halloween. They make it difficult to describe her later work as simply trading on familiar characters.
What Her Retirement Comments Actually Meant
Curtis has openly discussed leaving acting eventually. Those remarks should not be confused with an announcement that she has already stopped.
Speaking to PEOPLE in December 2025, she said, “I am done self-retiring. But no, of course I'll retire.”
She also acknowledged having claimed retirement several times before. Her comments described an eventual choice about when to leave, while she continued accepting opportunities.
The released work is the clearest guide to her present status. Disney’s Freakier Friday reunited her with Lohan in 2025, extending a screen relationship that began in 2003.
Where Jamie Lee Curtis Is Now
Curtis’s latest television chapter brings her back to comedy.
Newlyweds, starring Téa Leoni and Tim Daly, premiered on NBC on October 23, 2026. NBCUniversal’s announcement lists Curtis among its executive producers.
TheWrap’s series guide also identifies her as a co-creator and performer playing the male lead’s ex-wife.
That gives her current career two distinct sides: a crime drama on streaming and a relationship comedy on network television.
Like Frances McDormand’s move into producing, Curtis’s expanded role changes how a quieter or busier screen year should be understood.
Laurie Strode made her famous for surviving a story someone else created. Her later career increasingly includes helping create the next story herself.