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Cynthia Nixon

Cynthia Nixon plays Miranda Hobbes in Sex and the City, a funny, smart, and straight-talking Manhattan attorney, who, with her adorable red-headed son Brady, and good-hearted bartender husband Steve, lives – grudgingly – in Brooklyn.

Emmy and Tony Award-winner Cynthia Nixon has been a critically acclaimed and sought-after actress since the age of twelve. Nixon began production this Spring on Derick and Steven Martini's film Lymelife along with Alec Baldwin, Tim Hutton, and Holly Hunter.

Nixon was last seen in New Regency's feature Little Manhattan opposite Bradley Whitford as well as in Alex Steyermark's One Last Thing, which premiered at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival and was screened at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. The actress also starred in HBO's telepic Warm Springs, in which she plays Eleanor Roosevelt opposite Kenneth Branagh's Franklin Roosevelt. This role earned Nixon a Golden Globe nomination, a SAG Award nomination, and an Emmy nomination for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Made for Television. In 2004 she starred in the mini-series Tanner on Tanner, directed by Robert Altman and written by Garry Trudeau, a sequel to Tanner '88.

For six seasons Nixon appeared in HBO's much celebrated series, Sex and the City, in which she played Miranda, a role that garnered her an Emmy Award in 2004 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, two other Emmy nominations, and four consecutive Golden Globe nominations. Nixon was honored with the 2001 and 2004 SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.

Nixon was last seen off-Broadway in the title role of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. In 2006 the actress completed a successful run in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of David Lindsay-Abair's Pulitzer Prize winning play Rabbit Hole for which she won a Tony Award as well as a Drama League nomination and an Outer Critics Circle Award. Prior to that, she was last seen on Broadway performing as Mary Haines in The Roundabout's revival of The Women, which was also broadcast on PBS' Stage to Screen series. Nixon won a Theatre World Award at 14 for her stage debut as Dinah Lord in Ellis Rabb's production of The Philadelphia Story at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre. At 15, she was directed by acclaimed filmmaker Louis Malle in the title role of John Guare's Lydie Breeze. Most remarkably, at age 18, she appeared simultaneously in two Broadway productions, David Rabe's Hurlyburly and Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, both directed by Mike Nichols.

Nixon began her film career at age twelve with Ronald F. Maxwell's Little Darlings (as Sunshine, the flower child) and went on to appear in Sidney Lumet's Prince of the City (as a strung-out drug addict), Milos Forman's Amadeus (as Lorl, Mozart's maid), Robert Altman's O.C. & Stiggs, Marshall Brickman's The Manhattan Project, Let it Ride, Addams Family Values, The Pelican Brief, John Hughes' Baby's Day Out, Marvin's Room, The Out-of-Towners, Igby Goes Down, and Advice from a Caterpillar, based on the play by the Drama Dept.'s Douglas Carter Beane.

Nixon's very first professional job was an ABC After School Special, Seven Wishes of a Rich Kid, costarring Butterfly McQueen. Nixon went on to appear in PBS's presentation of Mark Twain's Private History of a Campaign that Failed, Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July and Women and Wallace (the last two for American Playhouse).

She has most recently appeared on network television in a guest roles on NBC's ER and on FOX's House. Prior to that, she was in the CBS telefilm Papa's Angels.

Born and raised in New York City, Nixon attended Hunter College High School and has a degree in English Literature from Barnard College. She lives in New York City and has a daughter, Samantha, and a son, Charlie.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2008.
Read earlier biographies on this page.

Cynthia Nixon Facts

Birth Name Cynthia Ellen Nixon
OccupationActress
BirthdayApril 9, 1966 (57)
SignAries
BirthplaceNew York, New York, USA
Height5' 11" (1m80)  How tall is Cynthia Nixon compared to you?
Awards2004 Emmy Awards: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (for Sex and the City)

Selected Filmography

Not available.