Early Life and Career Beginnings
Shannen Maria Doherty was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the daughter of Rosa, a beauty parlor owner, and Tom Doherty, a mortgage consultant. Doherty has Irish Catholic ancestry on her father's side and English, Scottish, and Scots-Irish ancestry on her mother's side. She was raised in her mother's Southern Baptist denomination.
Doherty had guest spots on TV series including Voyagers! and Father Murphy. When a casting notice was released in Hollywood for a regular role on the popular Little House on the Prairie, she jumped at the opportunity and eventually won the role of Jenny Wilder at the age of 11, thanks in part to actor/producer Michael Landon seeing her guest spot on Father Murphy, which he also produced. Doherty stayed in the series until the show's cancellation in 1983. In 1982, Shannen lent her voice talents to the animated film The Secret of NIMH. In 1985, Doherty starred as Maggie Malene in the teen-comedy movie, Girls Just Want To Have Fun, alongside actresses Helen Hunt and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Doherty was cast as the oldest Witherspoon sibling, Kris, on the family drama Our House, which ran from 1986 to 1988, a role which garnered her several Young Artist Award nominations. She then went on to appear in an episode of Magnum, P.I., followed by an early episode of Airwolf for which she was nominated as 'Best Young Actress: Guest in a Series' at the 6th Youth in Film Awards in 1984. Doherty's first major motion picture role was in Heathers, released in 1989.
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