Sela Ward (born July 11, 1956) is an American movie and television actress, producer, author, and former model.

She moved to California to pursue acting and landed her first film role in the 1983 Burt Reynolds vehicle The Man Who Loved Women. Her first regular role in a TV drama series, as a socialite on Dennis Weaver's short-lived CBS series, Emerald Point N.A.S., followed in the same year. Ward continued to land guest roles in both TV and movies throughout the 1980s, most notably opposite Tom Hanks in Nothing in Common (1986).