Jill Schoelen is best known for a variety of popular film and television projects during the 1980s & 1990s. She began her singing/acting career as a young teenager, debuting in TV commercials. That led to film and television roles starting with The Best of Times, a TV movie opposite Nicolas Cage and Crispin Glover. She then starred in 16 motion pictures and numerous television projects, including The Stepfather, Popcorn, Phantom of the Opera, Babes In Toyland, When a Stranger Calls Back, D.C. Cab, That Was Then...This Is Now, and Billionaire Boys Club. Her many costars include Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, Morgan Freeman, Drew Barrymore, Terry O'Quinn, and Sean Penn.

Jill starred in Sean Penn's writing and directorial debut of his stage production, The Kindness of Women. She also starred opposite Sean in Hurlyburly in Los Angeles, winning the Drama-Logue Critics award for her performance. Jill also starred in Pepper Street, the longest running small-theatre musical in Los Angeles for five years in the late 1980s.

In the middle of a prospering career in the early 1990's, Jill decided to become a mother and left the entertainment business. In 2010, Jill returned to her first love of music, releasing her debut CD Kelly's Smile. With her business knowledge and background as an actress, singer and dancer, Jill became an early producer on the musical Baby It's You in Los Angeles before it made its Broadway debut in 2011. She has also produced stage productions of the critically acclaimed shows, The Standard Bearer in Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2011/2012 directed by Julian Sands, and A Celebration of Harold Pinter starring Julian Sands in San Francisco in 2012 directed by John Malkovich.

In her young years as an actress in front of the camera, Jill had a private passion for behind the camera work as well. In the 2020s, Jill began pursuing many creative projects. Though her family is always her first priority, with everyone healthy and her boys now adults, Jill with her musical writing partner began writing and recording 21 songs for a new project, an Untitled Musical Dramedy. She has also been writing her memoir.

Jill returned to acting in 2023 starring in the feature film Mr. Christmas, a dark Christmas comedy scheduled for 2025 release, and the short film Stereo Vision.