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Cynthia Nixon Profile |
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Birth Date: April 9, 1966
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Birth Place: New York, New York, USA
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Birth Name: Cynthia Ellen Nixon
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Height: 5'11"
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Biography |
Cynthia Nixon is a Tony and Emmy Award-winning American
actress who is best known for her portrayal of lawyer
Miranda Hobbes in the popular HBO sitcom Sex and the City
(1998–2004).
The native New Yorker broke into showbiz 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, and made her
feature debut shortly after alongside fellow campers Kristy
McNichol and Tatum O'Neal in Little Darlings (1980), but it
was her award-winning Broadway debut as the bratty Dinah
Lord in a 1980 revival of The Philadelphia Story that
established her credentials on the boards, where she has
enjoyed her greatest success. Alternating among the three
media, she continued to deliver solid work in 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 production of John Guare's Lydie Breeze.
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. The much-hyped feat saw her play
the precocious English 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 but memorable role as
Mozart's tearful maid, hopelessly confused by the mad
goings-on in her master's house. She then 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 all-star
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 (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) and The Country Club (1999).
Nixon has contributed fine work in small roles to such
varied pictures as Addams Family Values (1993), Marvin's
Room (1996) and The Out-of-Towners (1999) but did not find
that breakthrough role to propel her to full-fledged feature
stardom.
She did, however, raise her profile significantly as one of
the four regulars of HBO's successful comedy Sex in the City
(1998-2004), inhabiting her role as the no-nonsense lawyer
Miranda with full-bodied believability 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 Bacula in the holiday
telepic Papa's Angels (2000). In 2002 she also landed a
scene-stealing stint as Mrs. Piggee in the much-admired
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 remained in demand, enjoying 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 after discovering he had polio. Nixon
earned an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Lead Actress in a
Miniseries or a Movie for her sharply drawn performance. She
then has 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).
Nixon has two children, daughter Samantha (b. 1996) and son
Charles Ezekiel (b. 2002), with Danny Mozes, an English
professor, with whom she had a relationship from 1988 to
2003.
In September 2004, it was reported that despite previous
relationships with men, Nixon had been in a nearly year-long
relationship with a woman, education expert Christine
Marinoni. When asked about this, she neither denied nor
confirmed, instead stating that "My private life is private.
But at the same time, I have nothing to hide. So what I will
say is that I am very happy."
In February 2005, the New York Post and other sources
reported that Nixon had moved to Brooklyn to live with
Marinoni. However, Nixon told the The New York Times in
January 2006 that she had not moved and that keeping her
kids in their Manhattan public schools took priority.
Nixon is a breast cancer survivor, but due to the stigma of
having cancer in Hollywood, she did not go public about it
for two years. Since then, she not only has openly admitted
that she had cancer, but she has become a breast cancer
activist and was able to convince the head of NBC to air her
breast cancer special on primetime. |
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Other
Information |
Has daughter named Samantha Mozes, born in November 1996.
Long-term relationship with Danny Mozes, an English
professor, which ended in June 2003.
Graduate of Hunter College High School in New York City.
Attended Barnard College.
Has been an on and off Broadway actress since 1980.
Cynthia and Danny Mozes met in junior high school and were
together from 1988 to 2003.
Son Charles Ezekiel Mozes born 16 December 2002
Naturally blonde.
Was nominated for Broadway's 1995 Tony Award as Best Actress
(Featured Role - Play) for "Indiscretions."
When she was a child actress, Nixon appeared in Fifth of
July in New York (and in a PBS broadcast of the play).
Was the only supporting character on "Sex and the City"
(1998) to win an Emmy.
Was a guest at Sarah Jessica Parker's 40th birthday.
Received her first Tony Award for "The Rabbit Hole" as "Best
Leading Actress in a Play" (11 June 2006).
Was number 88 on vh1's "100 Greatest Kid Stars" (2005)
(mini)
Was up for the role of Dana Scully in "The X Files" (1993).
The part was ultimately given to Gillian Anderson. |
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