Who is Jennifer Arnold?
Jennifer Arnold-Klein is a neonatologist, simulation educator, and TV personality known for co-starring in TLC’s “The Little Couple”. She was born in March 1974 in Florida, USA, and brought up by her mother Judy, alongside her only brother, David.
Despite being just 3ft 2ins tall due to being born with Spondyloepiphyseal Dysplasia Type Strudwick, a rare type of dwarfism that forced her to undergo over 30 orthopedic surgeries, Jennifer is much more than her condition. She obtained her undergraduate bachelor of science degrees in Psychology and Biology at the University of Miami, and graduated from Baltimore’s John Hopkins School of Medicine with a medical degree in 2000.
Jennifer’s studies didn’t stop there, however. On a constant mission to grow and learn, she underwent a strenuous Pediatric Residency Program at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. The reality star also obtained a Master of Science in Medical Education from the University of Pittsburgh, while completing a fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine. Currently, the Floridian is the Medical Director of the Simulation Center at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital.
Patient safety, simulation education, and research endeavors have been Jennifer’s passion for almost two decades. Before becoming a medical director, she was an NIH postdoctoral scholar at the Safar Center for Resuscitative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine. Her valuable research has been funded by the Cullen Trust for Healthcare, the Laerdal Foundation for Acute Medicine, and the MD Anderson Foundation, to name a few.
Jennifer’s current areas of interests in the field include using simulation to train teams, improve the home care and skills for primary caregivers of medically complex children, improve the safety and quality of care of patients, evaluate new clinical spaces, and develop educational curricula for various departments.
The doctor has given rousing national and international speeches on healthcare simulation at Fortune 100 corporations, Shiners Hospital, the Texas Conference for Women, and many more events. Some of her many accolades include the Ray E. Helfer Award for Innovation in Pediatric Education, which was awarded to her by the Academic Pediatric Association in 2008, and the Patients’ Choice Award.
Jennifer is an active member of many boards and institutions, such as the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the International Pediatric Simulation Society. She is an executive board member of OpHeart, a non-profit organization that seeks to improve the pediatric care of children with complex congenital heart disease, the International Network for Simulation-based Pediatric Innovation, Research, & Education (INSPIRE), and Boston’s Center for Medical Simulation.
The TLC heavyweight is also a national ambassador for Speak Now for Kids, an online child advocacy network created by the Children’s Hospital Association that seeks to raise awareness for children and families in the healthcare system. In the early 2010s, Jennifer was diagnosed with cancer but has been in remission for over six years. Despite her health struggles, she’s never slowed down and has shared her experiences in many programs such as “Oprah” and “The Wendy Williams Show”.
Jennifer, her husband Bill, and their children Will and Zoey’s docudrama, “The Little Couple”, has been going strong for over a dozen seasons and is set to be renewed for the 2023-2024 TV season.
Bill Klein
Bill Klein was born in Port Jefferson, Long Island, NY in October 1974, and currently resides in St. Petersburg, Florida, with his wife and children. He’s a businessman, author, and reality TV star with a reported $3.5 million net worth; not much is known about his early years or his parents, Barbara and William Sr., but Bill is believed to be an only child.
In 1996, the entrepreneur graduated from New York University with a biology degree. From 2000 to 2004, he worked as a sales director for MEDIQ/ACS, with some of his responsibilities including overseeing QA programs, marketing campaigns, and pharmaceutical sales programs. He then worked as a sales director for the Invacare Corporation until 2005, leaving the company for a lofty position as the chief operating officer of Emerge Sales.
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Emerge Sales advertises itself as a business development firm focusing on helping life science, medical devices, and home medical equipment manufacturers and providers grow on a global scale. In the past 25 years, the company’s executive team has owned and operated 15 healthcare companies as a distributor or manufacturer, with revenues of up to $250 million. With its programs, Emerge Sales aims to turnaround sales performance, launch new products, win new customers, and meet sales goals.
Although Jennifer was undoubtedly the star of “The Little Couple” during its first season, season two of the show focused more on Bill’s business ventures, and Emerge Sales made a brief cameo in one episode. Bill left Emerge Sales in December 2011 to focus full-time on Candu Enterprises, Inc., which he founded, and has been president and CEO of since 2009.
Candu Enterprises is slightly vaguer about the services it offers. According to Bill’s LinkedIn profile, the company provides talent services for “The Little Couple”, and public appearances at media events, trade shows, conventions, and corporate events. Candu also provides professional endorsements for select products and services. Bill and Jennifer have published two books through the company: “Life is Short” and “Think Big”, one of which was a New York Times bestseller.
In March 2011, Bill expanded his business portfolio with Rocky and Maggie’s Pet Boutique & Salon, located in Houston, Texas. The company has a strong online presence and provides thousands of customers with apparel and necessities for their furry friends, such as grooming and pet-sitting services, food, and high-end collars. Rocky and Maggie recently upgraded its workspace to Houston’s upscale Highland Village area, and aims to become a franchise in the near future.
Bill’s latest enterprise is Rocky and Maggie’s Pet Products, Inc., which he founded in January 2017. One of the products the company sells is Rocky and Maggie’s Pop Up Pee Pad, described as “the first and only pet training pad of its kind”. Somehow, Bill stills find the time for speaking engagements, interviews, and other media-related activities, despite having so much on his plate.
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What about Will and Zoey, the couple’s children? In an October 2018 episode of “The Little Couple”, Bill bared his soul and revealed that when he and Jennifer first made their relationship serious, he wanted biological children. However, he had a change of heart after struggling with fertility issues for years, and they adopted Will and Zoey – who both have dwarfism – from Chinese and Indian orphanages respectively.
In May 2022, Jennifer was asked in an interview if she and Bill planned on adopting more children. “We have talked about it… but I think given everything that’s going on for us right now, it’s definitely not been in the forefront of conversation,” she answered diplomatically. “I think we’re both just trying to hold on right now for dear life, between the pandemic and trying to focus on Will and Zoey and moving and new jobs.”
Fans of “The Little Couple” have seen Will and Zoey grow up, and are definitely looking forward to catching up with the youngsters and their talented parents in new episodes of the series, which recently resumed filming following a lengthy hiatus caused by the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
Famous Little People
Peter Dinklage of “Game of Thrones” fame is undeniably one of the world’s most famous little people. The charismatic thespian is 4ft 5ins tall, and was born in June 1969 in Jersey Shore, New Jersey. The film, TV and stage actor was born with achondroplasia, and has used his celebrity status to raise awareness about the condition that affects thousands around the globe.
Millions of HBO fans recognize Peter as Tyrion Lannister, as it’s his best-known role, and landed him a record-breaking four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series between 2011 and 2019. While studying acting at Bennington College, Peter performed in various amateur stage productions, before making his film debut in 1995 with the black comedy “Living in Oblivion”. His breakthrough role would come eight years later, thanks to the comedy-drama “The Station Agent”.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) pic.twitter.com/oub7Hr2Q8g
— Peter Dinklage (@Peter_Dinklage) January 18, 2017
Other notable projects of Peter’s include “Lassie”, “Death at a Funeral”, “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”, and “X-Men: Days of Future Past”. He has also performed voiceover work for videogames, and performed in theater productions such as “Richard III” and “Cyrano”, working with the Public Theatre and the Classic Stage Company.
Peter is of German and Irish descent, and was raised by Diane and John Carl Dinklage, who worked as an elementary school music teacher and an insurance salesman respectively. He has one older brother named Jonathan, but is the only person in his family with achondroplasia. Peter’s passion for acting became evident in his childhood, when he and Jonathan would perform puppet musicals for the neighborhood children. However, Jonathan ultimately chose not to pursue acting, as his true passion lay in the musical world; he is now a violinist and concertmaster with a degree from Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts.
Peter fine-tuned his acting skills while studying at Delbarton School, a Catholic boys-only preparatory school, where he was the lead in a fifth-grade production of “The Velveteen Rabbit”. He was inspired to become a professional actor in 1984, when watching a production of “True West”. After graduating from Bennington, he and a friend moved to New York City hoping to build a theater company, but had to move out after failing to pay the rent. To make ends meet, he worked a dreary data-processing job for six years, but now over two decades later, he’s a common feature on red carpets and in box office smash hits, proving that anything is possible with dedication and perseverance.
Next up is Warwick Davis, an English actor born in Epsom, Surrey, in February 1970. Warwick comes from humble beginnings, and was raised by a housewife mother, Susan, whereas his father Ashley was an insurance worker. Warwick studied at Chinthurst School and the City of London Freemen’s School; by which time he was already active in the acting profession.
Warwick was born with a rare bone growth disorder called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita. During his childhood, his grandmother heard a radio advertisement calling for people under 4 feet tall to be in “Return of the Jedi”. This was a dream come true for a young Warwick, as he was an avid “Star Wars” fan. During filming, Mark Hamill bought Warwick all the “Star Wars” action figures that he didn’t already own.
These days, Warwick is the highest grossing supporting actor of all time, thanks to his work in the multi-million “Harry Potter” and “Star Wars” franchises. He’s believed to have earned more than six figures for playing Professor Filius Flitwick in the “Harry Potter” saga; he also replaced Verne Troyer as Griphook in both parts of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”.
In 1995, Warwick and his father-in-law Peter Burroughs, who is also an actor, founded the Willow Management talent agency. Specializing in representing actors under five feet tall, it’s little surprise that the agency manages many of Warwick’s co-stars and fellow actors with dwarfism, who have appeared in “Harry Potter”, “Star Wars”, and “Labyrinth”. The agency would branch out nine years later, and also begin representing actors over seven feet tall, as they also suffer from being confined to novelty roles. Over forty actors represented by the agency were cast as goblins in the last installment of the “Harry Potter” movies.
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The Surrey native’s autobiography, “Size Matters Not: The Extraordinary Life and Career of Warwick Davis”, was published in April 2010, and included a foreword by famous director/producer George Lucas. His impressive feats include founding the Reduced Height Theatre Company, which casts exclusively short actors and uses reduced height sets for theatrical production, one of which is “See How They Run”, part of BBC’s “Modern Times” documentary series in 2015.
In February 2017, Warwick appeared in an episode of BBC’s genealogy program, “Who Do You Think You Are?”. He learned that one of his ancestors had two wives at the same time; another was a fellow actor who performed at minstrel shows in blackface, whereas a third family member died from syphilis in an asylum.
Although Warwick’s condition has brought him painful health problems such as severe joint pains and risk of retinal detachment, the actor takes life as it comes and is more interested in helping others. In the 2010s, he founded Little People UK, a charity that supports people with dwarfism and their families. Warwick’s wife Samantha was born with achondroplasia, whereas their two children inherited their father’s condition, which is much rarer.
