Jennifer Landon, Yellowstone’s Teeter, Lived on a Real Montana Ranch First

Before she played Teeter, Jen Landon lived on a cattle ranch in Paradise Valley, Montana. The facts, fixed, plus her Yellowstone ending and Grey's Anatomy role.

May 4, 2023 Updated October 26, 2026 5 min read

The story

Jen Landon on Instagram Photo: Instagram / @thejenlandon

Some actors research a role. Jen Landon had accidentally lived it first. Years before anyone handed her a script about a foul-mouthed ranch hand, she drove out of Los Angeles, landed on a cattle ranch in Paradise Valley, Montana, and, in her words, watched the grass grow. Then Yellowstone cast her as Teeter in 2020 and, as she tells it, put her right back on a cattle ranch in Paradise Valley.

Jen Landon as Teeter on Yellowstone in a backwards cap and work vest — Jen Landon as Teeter: pink hair, trucker cap, zero patience.

The ranch before the ranch

Landon told Truck Camper Magazine in January 2023: “Ironically, I ended up living on a cattle ranch in Paradise Valley, Montana.” And the punchline came later: “And then when I got the job on Yellowstone I couldn’t believe I was on a cattle ranch in Paradise Valley, Montana.” She also said that on the show “I got to learn how to ride a horse.”

That last line is the one I like best, because it undoes the myth our own 2023 version of this page helped spread: that she arrived on set a seasoned horsewoman. She did not. She arrived as someone who knew what a ranch smells like at 5 a.m. and was willing to learn the rest in front of a camera crew, which is braver.

Jen Landon on horseback with a rope on the saddle — Off duty, still in the saddle.

Why horses were never simple for her

There is a family reason the riding mattered. In a February 2023 interview with Cowgirl Magazine, Landon described how her mother, Cindy, was thrown from a horse that spooked, with one foot still caught in the stirrup. “She really shouldn’t have survived that accident,” Landon said. It happened not long after her father, the actor Michael Landon, died on July 1, 1991.

So when you watch Teeter swing into a saddle like it is a bar stool, know that the woman doing it grew up with good reason to keep her distance from horses. I find that more interesting than any “born in the saddle” origin story, and it is true, which helps.

Who Jen Landon is, with the facts fixed

Jennifer Landon was born on August 29, 1983, which makes her 43. She is the daughter of Michael Landon, of Little House on the Prairie and Bonanza, and his third wife, Cindy Clerico. Her half-brother Christopher Landon is the director behind Happy Death Day; her half-brother Michael Landon Jr. and half-sister Leslie Landon also work in the business.

Before Montana, she was a soap star. As Gwen Norbeck Munson on CBS’s As the World Turns she won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series three years running, 2006 to 2008. (Our original article said “a Grammy.” It was not a Grammy. Nobody sang.) She later played Heather Stevens on The Young and the Restless, Amy on Animal Kingdom and Sarah Allen on FBI: Most Wanted.

Jen Landon standing in the door of her truck camper in the desert — The truck camper she told Truck Camper Magazine about. Her great-grandmother kept one until she was 80.

Teeter, from day player to the finale

Another fix: Landon did not join in season 5. Teeter arrived in season 3 in 2020, recurred through season 4 and became a series regular for the final season. Along the way she was fired from the bunkhouse in season 4 and talked her way back the next episode, which is the most Teeter thing that could happen to Teeter. She also shared the cast’s 2024 SAG Award ensemble nomination.

The accent, the one viewers either adore or need subtitles for, became a running joke the show itself leaned into. In the series finale, which aired on December 15, 2024, Teeter, still grieving Colby, asks horse trainer Travis Wheatley for a job in Texas; he tells her she is hired if she learns how to talk. My read: that is Taylor Sheridan writing a fond farewell to a character he clearly enjoyed, with a little dig, which is how cowboys say “I love you.”

Jen Landon practicing roping in the evening sun — Roping practice, the unglamorous part of the job.

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Where she is in 2026: scrubs instead of spurs

Teeter’s ticket to Texas set up a possible spot in the 6666 world, but the job Landon actually took next was at Grey Sloan Memorial. In January 2026 Deadline reported that she would recur on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy in the second half of season 22 as Dr. Toni Wright, a plastic surgeon attending, starting with episode 11, for four consecutive episodes. The casting note describes Toni as “a charming and disorganized mess who says yes more than no,” which, frankly, is Teeter with a medical license.

Meanwhile Yellowstone fans keep asking for her back. Asked by TV Insider in July 2026 about Teeter joining the Beth and Rip spinoff Dutton Ranch, Kelly Reilly said she would love it, and added: “We don’t get to make those decisions.” No casting has been announced.

My take

Hollywood loves a nepo-baby story, and Landon could have coasted on the surname. Instead she collected three Emmys in her twenties, stepped back from the business, ended up in a Montana valley for no career reason at all, and came back to win a role that needed exactly that detour. The grass she watched grow in Paradise Valley turned out to be the best acting class she ever took.

Sources

Fact check

Rumor / Reality

The rumor

A Teeter return in Dutton Ranch: Kelly Reilly would like it, nothing is cast.
A Teeter role in a 6666 series: the finale set it up, no project is confirmed.
A longer Grey's Anatomy run beyond season 22: not officially announced.
Claims that she grew up riding: she says she learned on Yellowstone.

What we know

Landon told Truck Camper Magazine she lived on a cattle ranch in Paradise Valley, Montana, before Yellowstone.
She learned to ride for the role, in her own words.
Teeter joined in season 3 and became a series regular in season 5; the finale sends her to work in Texas.
Deadline reported her Grey's Anatomy casting as Dr. Toni Wright in January 2026.
She is the daughter of Michael Landon and Cindy Clerico.

Written by

Victoria Lane Editor-in-chief

“A rumor is not a story until we know what is actually true.”