Jan Broberg Felt is an American actress, singer, dancer, and survivor. Her name became widely known not because she sought notoriety, but because her childhood was marked by events that no child should ever endure — experiences that later forced the public to confront uncomfortable truths about grooming, manipulation, and the ways trust can be exploited.
As a child, Jan was kidnapped twice by a family friend, at ages twelve and fourteen. The abduction was not a sudden act of violence from a stranger, but something far more insidious: a prolonged betrayal rooted in familiarity, access, and psychological control. Her story has since been documented in her family’s memoir Stolen Innocence, in the widely viewed documentary Abducted in Plain Sight, and dramatized in the series A Friend of the Family, which Broberg herself helped produce.
But Jan Broberg’s life cannot be reduced to what was done to her.
What matters just as much is what came after.
In the years following her childhood trauma, Broberg built a career in the performing arts, appearing in feature films, television productions, and theater work. She has acted in projects for networks such as HBO, Disney, and Columbia TriStar, and appeared in films including Little Secrets, Mobsters and Mormons, and Maniac. On television, she held a recurring role as Nurse Louise on the WB family drama Everwood, bringing warmth and steadiness to a series centered on healing and community.
Her stage career has been equally extensive. Broberg has performed in productions of The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Carousel, and Jane Eyre, and has remained deeply involved in regional theater, not only as a performer but also as a director and arts advocate.
In 2017, she served as executive director of the Kayenta Arts Foundation and Center for the Arts in Utah, continuing her commitment to creating spaces where storytelling, creativity, and connection can thrive.
Broberg’s decision to share her story publicly has not been about spectacle, but about awareness. Her experience illustrates how abuse often hides behind charisma and community acceptance, and how children can be manipulated into silence through fear and confusion. By speaking openly, she has contributed to broader conversations about safeguarding, accountability, and survival.
Jan Broberg Felt’s life is one of endurance — not the simple endurance of continuing, but the deeper kind: reclaiming identity, building a career, raising a family, and insisting on a self defined by more than trauma.
She is not only a figure from a documentary.
She is a woman who lived through something unimaginable — and kept going.
