CYNTHIA NIXON
Name: Cynthia Ellen Nixon
Born: 9 April 1966 New York City, New York, United States
Cynthia Ellen Nixon (born April 9, 1966) is a Tony and Emmy Award-winning
American actress who is best known for her portrayal of lawyer Miranda Hobbes in
the popular HBO comedy-drama Sex and the City (1998–2004).
The native New Yorker began acting at age 12 as the object of a wealthy
schoolmate's crush in The Seven Wishes of a Rich Kid, a 1979 ABC Afterschool
Special. She made her feature debut co-staring with Kristy McNichol and Tatum O'Neal
in Little Darlings (1980). She made her Broadway debut as the bratty Dinah Lord
in a 1980 revival of The Philadelphia Story. Alternating between film, TV and
stage she did projects like the 1982 ABC-movie My Body, My Child, the features
Prince of the City (1981) and I Am the Cheese (1983) and the 1982 off-Broadway
productions of John Guare's Lydie Breeze. In 1985 she appeared alongside Jeff
Daniels in Lanford Wilson's Lemon Sky at Second Stage Theatre.
Nixon graduated from Hunter College High School, and made theatrical history
while a freshman at Barnard College in 1984, simultaneously appearing in two hit
Broadway plays directed by Mike Nichols. She played the daughter of Jeremy
Irons and Christine Baranski in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing while portraying a
teenage runaway who encounters slimy Hollywood types two blocks away in David
Rabe's Hurlyburly. That year's Oscar-winning Best Picture Amadeus, directed by
Milos Forman, also featured her in a brief role as Mozart's tearful maid. She
landed her first major supporting part in a movie as the intelligent girlfriend
who aids her teenage boyfriend (Christopher Collet) in building a nuclear bomb
in Marshall Brickman's The Manhattan Project (1986). Nixon was part of the cast
of the NBC miniseries The Murder of Mary Phagan (NBC, 1988) starring Jack Lemmon
and Kevin Spacey and essayed the daughter of a presidential candidate (Michael
Murphy) in Tanner '88 (also 1988), Robert Altman's sharply-observed, episodic
political satire for HBO--she would later reprise the role for the 2004 follow-up
*Tanner on Tanner.
On stage, Nixon portrayed Juliet in a 1988 New York Shakespeare Festival
production of Romeo and Juliet and acted in the workshop production of Wendy
Wasserstein's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Heidi Chronicles, playing several
characters after it came to Broadway in 1989. She replaced Marcia Gay Harden as
a pill-popping Mormon wife whose husband reveals his homosexuality in Tony
Kushner's landmark two-part Angels in America (1994), received a Tony nomination
for her performance as the headstrong young woman who falls for a mama's boy in
Indiscretions (Les Parents Terribles) (1996, her sixth Broadway show) and,
though she originally lost the part to another actress, eventually took over the
role of Lala Levy, the aspiring Scarlett O'Hara in the Tony Award-winning The
Last Night of Ballyhoo (1997). Nixon was also one of the founding members of the
theatrical troupe The Drama Dept., which included Sarah Jessica Parker, Dylan
Baker, John Cameron Mitchell and Billy Crudup among its actors, appearing in the
group's productions of Kingdom on Earth (1996), June Moon and As Bees in Honey
Drown (both 1997), Hope is the Thing with Feathers (1998), and The Country Club
(1999).
Nixon has contributed supporting performances to such varied pictures as Addams
Family Values (1993), Marvin's Room (1996) and The Out-of-Towners (1999).
She raised her profile significantly as one of the four regulars of HBO's
successful comedy Sex and the City (1998-2004), inhabiting her role as the no-nonsense
lawyer Miranda in support of series star Sarah Jessica Parker. After Emmy
nominations as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2002 and
2003, Nixon took home the trophy in 2004 for the series' final season.
The immense popularity of the series led Nixon to enjoy her first leading role
in a feature, playing a video artist who falls in love, despite her best efforts
to avoid commitment, with a bisexual actor who just happens to be dating a gay
man (her best friend) in Advice From a Caterpillar (2000), as well as starring
opposite Scott Bakula in the holiday telepic Papa's Angels (2000). In 2002 she
also landed a stint as Mrs. Piggee in the indie comedy Igby Goes Down, and her
turn in the theatrical production of Clare Booth Luce's play The Women was
captured for PBS's Stage On Screen series.
Post-Sex, Nixon did a guest stint on ER in 2005 as a mother who undergoes a
tricky procedure to lessen the effects of a debilitating stroke. She followed up
with a turn as Eleanor Roosevelt for HBO's Warm Springs (2005), which chronicled
Franklin Delano Roosevelt's quest for a miracle cure for his paralytic illness.
Nixon earned an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a
Movie for her performance. She then had a 2005 stint on the FOX hit medical
series House as a patient who suffers a seizure and matches wits with Dr. House
(Hugh Laurie). In 2006, Nixon won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading
Role (Play) for David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Rabbit Hole.
Preparations are already underway for a Sex and the City feature film. HBO is
currently in negotiations with executive producer Michael Patrick King and the
cast from the TV series of the same name, including Nixon.
Name: Cynthia Ellen Nixon
Born: 9 April 1966 New York City, New York, United States
Cynthia Ellen Nixon (born April 9, 1966) is a Tony and Emmy Award-winning
American actress who is best known for her portrayal of lawyer Miranda Hobbes in
the popular HBO comedy-drama Sex and the City (1998–2004).
The native New Yorker began acting at age 12 as the object of a wealthy
schoolmate's crush in The Seven Wishes of a Rich Kid, a 1979 ABC Afterschool
Special. She made her feature debut co-staring with Kristy McNichol and Tatum O'Neal
in Little Darlings (1980). She made her Broadway debut as the bratty Dinah Lord
in a 1980 revival of The Philadelphia Story. Alternating between film, TV and
stage she did projects like the 1982 ABC-movie My Body, My Child, the features
Prince of the City (1981) and I Am the Cheese (1983) and the 1982 off-Broadway
productions of John Guare's Lydie Breeze. In 1985 she appeared alongside Jeff
Daniels in Lanford Wilson's Lemon Sky at Second Stage Theatre.
Nixon graduated from Hunter College High School, and made theatrical history
while a freshman at Barnard College in 1984, simultaneously appearing in two hit
Broadway plays directed by Mike Nichols. She played the daughter of Jeremy
Irons and Christine Baranski in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing while portraying a
teenage runaway who encounters slimy Hollywood types two blocks away in David
Rabe's Hurlyburly. That year's Oscar-winning Best Picture Amadeus, directed by
Milos Forman, also featured her in a brief role as Mozart's tearful maid. She
landed her first major supporting part in a movie as the intelligent girlfriend
who aids her teenage boyfriend (Christopher Collet) in building a nuclear bomb
in Marshall Brickman's The Manhattan Project (1986). Nixon was part of the cast
of the NBC miniseries The Murder of Mary Phagan (NBC, 1988) starring Jack Lemmon
and Kevin Spacey and essayed the daughter of a presidential candidate (Michael
Murphy) in Tanner '88 (also 1988), Robert Altman's sharply-observed, episodic
political satire for HBO--she would later reprise the role for the 2004 follow-up
*Tanner on Tanner.
On stage, Nixon portrayed Juliet in a 1988 New York Shakespeare Festival
production of Romeo and Juliet and acted in the workshop production of Wendy
Wasserstein's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Heidi Chronicles, playing several
characters after it came to Broadway in 1989. She replaced Marcia Gay Harden as
a pill-popping Mormon wife whose husband reveals his homosexuality in Tony
Kushner's landmark two-part Angels in America (1994), received a Tony nomination
for her performance as the headstrong young woman who falls for a mama's boy in
Indiscretions (Les Parents Terribles) (1996, her sixth Broadway show) and,
though she originally lost the part to another actress, eventually took over the
role of Lala Levy, the aspiring Scarlett O'Hara in the Tony Award-winning The
Last Night of Ballyhoo (1997). Nixon was also one of the founding members of the
theatrical troupe The Drama Dept., which included Sarah Jessica Parker, Dylan
Baker, John Cameron Mitchell and Billy Crudup among its actors, appearing in the
group's productions of Kingdom on Earth (1996), June Moon and As Bees in Honey
Drown (both 1997), Hope is the Thing with Feathers (1998), and The Country Club
(1999).
Nixon has contributed supporting performances to such varied pictures as Addams
Family Values (1993), Marvin's Room (1996) and The Out-of-Towners (1999).
She raised her profile significantly as one of the four regulars of HBO's
successful comedy Sex and the City (1998-2004), inhabiting her role as the no-nonsense
lawyer Miranda in support of series star Sarah Jessica Parker. After Emmy
nominations as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2002 and
2003, Nixon took home the trophy in 2004 for the series' final season.
The immense popularity of the series led Nixon to enjoy her first leading role
in a feature, playing a video artist who falls in love, despite her best efforts
to avoid commitment, with a bisexual actor who just happens to be dating a gay
man (her best friend) in Advice From a Caterpillar (2000), as well as starring
opposite Scott Bakula in the holiday telepic Papa's Angels (2000). In 2002 she
also landed a stint as Mrs. Piggee in the indie comedy Igby Goes Down, and her
turn in the theatrical production of Clare Booth Luce's play The Women was
captured for PBS's Stage On Screen series.
Post-Sex, Nixon did a guest stint on ER in 2005 as a mother who undergoes a
tricky procedure to lessen the effects of a debilitating stroke. She followed up
with a turn as Eleanor Roosevelt for HBO's Warm Springs (2005), which chronicled
Franklin Delano Roosevelt's quest for a miracle cure for his paralytic illness.
Nixon earned an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a
Movie for her performance. She then had a 2005 stint on the FOX hit medical
series House as a patient who suffers a seizure and matches wits with Dr. House
(Hugh Laurie). In 2006, Nixon won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading
Role (Play) for David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Rabbit Hole.
Preparations are already underway for a Sex and the City feature film. HBO is
currently in negotiations with executive producer Michael Patrick King and the
cast from the TV series of the same name, including Nixon.