Cynthia Nixon biography

Synopsis

Early Career

Emmy and Tony-winning actress Cynthia Nixon was born April 9, 1966, in New York, New York. A versatile performer, she began her career on the New York stage as a teenager. She made her Broadway debut in The Philadelphia Story in 1980. That same year, Nixon appeared as a hippie child in the film Little Darlings with Tatum O’Neal.

Over the next few years, Cynthia Nixon played a variety of roles on stage, television, and film. She appeared in a few television after school specials as well as juggled roles in two Broadway plays - Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing and David Rabe's Hurlyburly - at the same time in 1984 and 1985. Somehow Nixon also made time to film a small role in Amadeus (1984). In the 1990s, Cynthia Nixon kept up her hectic work schedule. She made television and film appearances and performed in several productions, scoring her first Tony Award nomination in 1995 for her work in Indiscretions.

Sex and the City

In 1997, Nixon auditioned for what would prove to be the biggest project of her career so far. She won the role of Miranda Hobbes in a new HBO comedy series Sex and the City based on a newspaper column by Candace Bushnell. Sarah Jessica Parker played the columnist - named Carrie Bradshaw in the show. The show followed the lives and romantic misadventures of Bradshaw, Hobbes, art dealer Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) and public relations expert and man-eater Samantha Jones (Kim Catrall). Filled with sharp dialogue, genuine characters, and interesting fashions, Sex and the City became a huge hit. Cynthia Nixon played Miranda as smart, sarcastic, and successful, but also yet fearful, defensive, and mildly neurotic at times, adding a layer of vulnerability to the character. During the course of the series, her character goes through a transformation, softened somewhat by her experiences as a mother and later a wife. Nixon won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance in 2004.

After the demise of Sex and the City in 2004, Cynthia Nixon has done her best to remind the world of her great acting range. She appeared as Eleanor Roosevelt in the HBO film Warm Springs (2005) opposite Kenneth Branagh as Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Critics praised Nixon's interpretation of the legendary first lady and humanitarian.

In 2006, she won her first Tony Award for her performance as a grief-stricken mother in the play Rabbit