Jane McNeill

Jane McNeill-Balter, professionally credited as Jane McNeill, is an American stage, film and television actress, best known to television audiences for her recurring role as Patricia on the second season of The Walking Dead. Life and career McNeill is a native of Whiteville, North Carolina, in Columbus County. She is the daughter of John McNeill and Margaret Powell McNeill. McNeill first became involved in theater and acting as a sixth grader. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but began taking drama classes during her sophomore year at the university. She attended the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut and interned at the Arkansas Repertory Theater in Little Rock following college. McNeill worked as an actor in Wilmington, North Carolina, for one year, and then relocated to Kentucky, where she joined a repertory theater for six months. In 1990, McNeill moved to Chicago, Illinois, to pursue acting and theater. By her own accounts, she "spent eight years doing theater and waiting tables." McNeill went back to school, earning a master's degree in education from DePaul University. She taught drama and English in the Chicago area until she returned to North Carolina in 1999. McNeill married her husband, Yoel Balter, in 1996. The couple moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, in December 1999, where McNeill worked in human resources. They have two children - Abby (born in 2001) and Ben (born in 2004). They relocated to the Chapel Hill area, where her husband earned a J.D. from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2007. The entire family returned to Wilmington in 2007.