Cynthia Nixon | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Nixon in 2025 | |
| Born | Cynthia Ellen Nixon (1966-04-09)April 9, 1966 (age 59) Manhattan,New York City, U.S. |
| Education | Barnard College (BA) |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1979–present |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Partner | Danny Mozes (1988–2003) |
| Children | 3 |
| Awards | Full list |
| Website | cynthiafornewyork |
Cynthia Ellen Nixon (born April 9, 1966) is an American actress, activist, andtheater director. During her career, she receivedvarious accolades, including twoPrimetime Emmy Awards, twoTony Awards, and aGrammy Award, making her one of the few actresses to have won three of the four major American entertainment awards (EGOT). She has also been nominated for sixGolden Globe Awards. Nixon may be best known for her portrayal ofMiranda Hobbes in theHBO seriesSex and the City (1998–2004) and filmsSex and the City (2008) andSex and the City 2 (2010), as well as the television showAnd Just Like That... (2021–2025).
Nixon made herBroadway debut in the 1980 revival ofThe Philadelphia Story. She went on to receive twoTony Awards: the first forBest Actress in a Play forRabbit Hole (2006), and the second forBest Featured Actress in a Play forThe Little Foxes (2017). Her other Broadway credits includeThe Real Thing (1983),Hurlyburly (1983),Indiscretions (1995),The Women (2001), andWit (2012).
She won thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series forLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2008 and aGrammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album forAn Inconvenient Truth in 2009. She acted in the filmsAmadeus (1984),James White (2015), andA Quiet Passion (2016). She portrayedEleanor Roosevelt inWarm Springs (2005),Michele Davis inToo Big to Fail (2011), andNancy Reagan inKilling Reagan (2016). Her other television credits includeThe Big C (2010–2011),Ratched (2020), andThe Gilded Age (2022–present).
In2018, Nixon ran forGovernor of New York as part of theWorking Families Party challengingDemocratic incumbentAndrew Cuomo. She lost the Democratic primary to Cuomo on September 13, 2018, with 34% of the vote to his 66%. Nixon has been an advocate forLGBT rights in the United States, particularly theright of same-sex marriage.[1][2] She met her wife at a 2002 gay rights rally, and announced her engagement at a rally for New Yorksame-sex marriage in 2009.[3] She received the Visibility Award from theHuman Rights Campaign in 2018.[4]
Nixon was born in the Manhattan borough of New York City, the only child of Walter Elmer Nixon Jr., a radio journalist fromHarlingen, Texas,[5][6][7] and Anne Elizabeth (née Knoll),[8] an actress originally fromChicago.[9][10] She credits her mother with "indoctrinating" her into theatre.[11] She is of English and German descent.[12][13] Her grandparents were Adolph Knoll, Etta Elizabeth Williams, Walter E. Nixon, and Grace Truman McCormack.[14][15][16] Nixon's parents divorced when she was six years old.[9] According to Nixon, her father was often unemployed[9] and her mother was the household's main breadwinner:[10] Nixon's mother worked on the game showTo Tell the Truth, coaching the "impostors" who claimed to be the person described by the host.
Nixon was an actress all through her years atHunter College Elementary School andHunter College High School (class of 1984), often taking time away from school to perform in film and on stage.[17][18] Nixon also acted in order to pay her way throughBarnard College, where she received a B.A.[19] in English Literature.[20] Nixon was also a student in theSemester at Sea Program in the Spring of 1986.[21]
Nixon's first onscreen appearance (at 8 years old) was as an imposter onTo Tell the Truth, where her mother worked, pretending to be a junior horse riding champion.[22][9][23][24] She began acting at 12 as the object of a wealthy schoolmate's crush inThe Seven Wishes of a Rich Kid, a 1979ABC Afterschool Special.[25][11] She made her feature debut co-starring withKristy McNichol andTatum O'Neal inLittle Darlings (1980). She made herBroadway debut as Dinah Lord in a 1980 revival ofThe Philadelphia Story.[24] Alternating between film, TV, and stage, she did projects like the 1982 ABC movieMy Body, My Child, the featuresPrince of the City (1981) andI Am the Cheese (1983), and the 1982Off-Broadway productions ofJohn Guare'sLydie Breeze.
In 1984, while a freshman at Barnard College, Nixon made theatrical history by simultaneously appearing in two hit Broadway plays directed byMike Nichols.[18] They wereThe Real Thing, where she played the daughter ofJeremy Irons andChristine Baranski; andHurlyburly, where she played a young woman who encounters sleazyHollywood executives.[26] The two theaters were just two blocks apart and Nixon's roles were both short, so she could run from one to the other.[26] Onscreen, she played the role of Salieri's maid/spy, Lorl, inAmadeus (1984). In 1985, she appeared alongsideJeff Daniels inLanford Wilson'sLemon Sky atSecond Stage Theatre.[27]
She landed her first major supporting role in a movie as an intelligent teenager who aids her boyfriend (Christopher Collet) in building a nuclear bomb inMarshall Brickman'sThe Manhattan Project (1986).[28] Nixon was part of the cast of theNBCminiseriesThe Murder of Mary Phagan (NBC, 1988) starringJack Lemmon andKevin Spacey, and portrayed the daughter of a presidential candidate (Michael Murphy) inTanner '88 (1988),Robert Altman'spolitical satire forHBO. She reprised the role for the 2004 sequel,Tanner on Tanner.
On stage, Nixon portrayedJuliet in a 1988New York Shakespeare Festival production ofRomeo and Juliet,[29] and acted in the workshop production ofWendy Wasserstein'sPulitzer Prize-winningThe Heidi Chronicles,[30] playing several characters after it came toBroadway in 1989. She was the guest star in thesecond episode of the long runningNBC television seriesLaw & Order. She played the role of anagoraphobic woman in a February 1993 episode ofMurder, She Wrote, titled "Threshold of Fear".
Nixon succeededMarcia Gay Harden as Harper Pitt inTony Kushner'sAngels in America (1994),[31] received aTony nomination for her performance inIndiscretions (Les Parents Terribles) (1996), her sixth Broadway show,[32] and, although she originally lost the part to another actress, eventually took over the role of Lala Levy in the Tony-winningThe Last Night of Ballyhoo (1997).
Nixon was a founding member of the Off-Broadway theatrical troupe Drama Dept.,[33] which includedSarah Jessica Parker,Dylan Baker,John Cameron Mitchell andBilly Crudup among its actors, appearing in the group's productions ofKingdom on Earth (1996),June Moon andAs Bees in Honey Drown (both 1997),Hope is the Thing with Feathers (1998), andThe Country Club (1999). She had supporting roles inAddams Family Values (1993),Baby's Day Out (1994),Marvin's Room (1996), andThe Out-of-Towners (1999).
She was one of the four regulars onHBO's comedySex and the City (1998–2004), as the lawyerMiranda Hobbes.[34] Nixon received threeEmmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (2002, 2003, 2004), winning the award in 2004, for the show's final season.[35]
Nixon next had her first leading role in a feature, playing a video artist who falls in love, despite her best efforts to avoid commitment, with abisexual actor who just happens to be dating agay man (her best friend) inAdvice from a Caterpillar (2000), as well as starring oppositeScott Bakula in the holiday television moviePapa's Angels (2000). In 2002, she also acted in theindie comedyIgby Goes Down, and her turn in the theatrical production ofClare Boothe Luce's playThe Women was captured forPBS'Stage on Screen series.
Post-Sex and the City, Nixon made a guest appearance onER in 2005, as a mother who undergoes a tricky procedure to lessen the effects of a debilitatingstroke. She followed up with a turn asEleanor Roosevelt for HBO'sWarm Springs (2005), which chronicledFranklin Delano Roosevelt's quest for a miracle cure for hispolio. Nixon earned an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her performance.[35] In December 2005, she appeared in theFox TV seriesHouse in the episode "Deception", as a patient who suffers a seizure.
In 2006, she appeared inDavid Lindsay-Abaire'sPulitzer Prize-winning dramaRabbit Hole in a Manhattan Theatre Club production,[36] and won theTony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Play).[37] In 2008, she revived her role as Miranda Hobbes in theSex and the City feature film, directed by HBO executive producerMichael Patrick King and co-starring the cast of the original series.[38] Also in 2008, she won an Emmy for her guest appearance in an episode ofLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit, portraying a woman pretending to havedissociative identity disorder.[35] In 2009, Nixon won theGrammy Award forBest Spoken Word Album along withBeau Bridges andBlair Underwood for the albumAn Inconvenient Truth (Al Gore).[39]
In March 2010, Nixon received theVito Russo Award at theGLAAD Media Awards. The award is presented to an openlyLGBTQ media professional "who has made a significant difference in promoting equality for the LGBT community".[citation needed] It was announced in June 2010 that Nixon would appear in four episodes of theShowtime seriesThe Big C.[40] Nixon appeared in aLaw & Order: Criminal Intent episode based on the problems surrounding the Broadway musicalSpider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Her character is "Amanda Reese, the high-strung and larger-than-life director behind a problem-plagued Broadway version ofIcarus," loosely modeled afterSpider-Man directorJulie Taymor.[41]
In 2012, Nixon starred as Professor Vivian Bearing in the Broadway debut of Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize–winning playWit. Produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club, the play opened January 26, 2012 at theSamuel J. Friedman Theatre.[42] Nixon received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play for the performance.[43] In 2012, Nixon also starred as Petranilla in the TV miniseries ofKen Follett'sWorld Without End broadcast on theReelzChannel, alongsideBen Chaplin,Peter Firth,Charlotte Riley, andMiranda Richardson.
In 2015, Nixon appeared in two films which premiered at the2015 Sundance Film Festival:Stockholm, Pennsylvania andJames White. She received critical acclaim for both performances, especially for the latter, which some[according to whom?] considered as "Oscar-worthy".[44][45][46][47]
Nixon played the leading role of reclusive American poetEmily Dickinson in the biographical filmA Quiet Passion directed and written byTerence Davies.[48] The film premiered in February 2016 at the66th Berlin International Film Festival. In May 2016, it was announced that Nixon would playNancy Reagan in the upcomingtelevision film adaptation ofKilling Reagan.[49] The film aired in October 2016.[49]
Nixon appeared on Broadway in the revival ofThe Little Foxes, officially opening on April 19, 2017, at theSamuel J. Friedman Theatre. She alternated the roles of Regina and Birdie withLaura Linney, winning her second Tony Award for her performance as Birdie.[50]
In January 2019, it was announced that Nixon will star in the upcomingNetflix drama seriesRatched.[51] Since 2021 she returned to the role ofMiranda Hobbes in theSex and the City revivalAnd Just Like That... forHBO Max where she also serves as an executive producer. Since 2022 she took a leading role of Ada Brook in another HBO Max showThe Gilded Age starring alongsideLouisa Jacobson,Christine Baranski, andCarrie Coon.
Nixon is a member of theNew York City chapter ofDemocratic Socialists of America. Nixon is a long-time advocate forpublic education. She is a spokesperson for New York's Alliance for Quality Education, a public education fairness advocacy organization.[1][52][53] Nixon also has a history of advocacy in support ofwomen's health.[1]
She endorsedBill de Blasio in the2013 New York City mayoral election, who went on to win the Democratic nomination and the general election. Nixon campaigned actively for de Blasio, whom she had worked with since the early 2000s when campaigning againstMichael Bloomberg's education policies. De Blasio credited Nixon and union leader George Gresham as the two "architects of (his) campaign" in the Democratic primaries, when he defeated the favoriteChristine Quinn. After his election, de Blasio appointed Nixon as his representative toThe Public Theater.[54]
In the2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Nixon endorsedBernie Sanders before campaigning for him in early February 2020 in Las Vegas. She stated, "In the same terrifying and muscular way that Trump is a force for so much of what is bad in this country, in this world, Bernie has that same kind of muscularity of vision but for good. A candidate who is too beholden to big money and the establishment and just basically doesn't want to rock the boat is never going to be a powerful enough counterbalance to what Donald Trump has to offer. You need someone as vigorous and who is wanting to turn the system upside down."[55]
In 2023, Nixon signed an open letter expressing "serious concerns about editorial bias" in reporting by theNew York Times ontransgender people. The letter characterized the NYT's coverage as using "an eerily familiar mix of pseudoscience and euphemistic, charged language", and raised concerns regarding the NYT's employment practices regarding trans contributors.[56][57][58]
On March 19, 2018, Nixon announced hercampaign forGovernor of New York as a challenger toDemocratic incumbentAndrew Cuomo.[59] Her platform focused onincome inequality,renewable energy, establishinguniversal health care, stoppingmass incarceration in the United States, andprotecting undocumented children from deportation.[60] She lost in the Democratic primary to Cuomo on September 13, 2018, with 34% of the vote to his 66%.[61] Nixon was initially nominated as the gubernatorial candidate for theWorking Families Party;[61] however, the party threw its support to Cuomo, after he defeated Nixon in the Democratic primary.
Nixon was expected to secure the nomination of theWorking Families Party of New York during its annual convention in April 2018, thus guaranteeing her a spot on the general election ballot.[62] On April 15, Nixon won 91.5 percent of the vote at the Party's statewide committee meeting after Cuomo withdrew himself from consideration at the last minute. Nixon stated that in the event that she did not also secure the Democratic nomination, she would "confer with the Working Families Party and we will make the decision we think is best".[63]
The endorsement caused a schism in the party, as labor unions, including the Service Employees International Union, andCommunications Workers of America, indicated they would not support the party in the election. The withdrawal, it was believed, would significantly hurt the party's finances which, in 2018, were at a level of $1.7 million and supported a statewide staff of about 15 people. The battle received considerable attention since there were concerns that Nixon might drain enough votes from Cuomo in the general election to allow aRepublican to be elected (though Cuomo was comfortably leading in the polls at the time). Cuomo had vigorously campaigned to get the nomination before withdrawing when it was clear he would not get it.[64][65]
In contrast to Cuomo, Nixon supported thelegalization of marijuana.[66] The most important reason, she said, wasracial justice. "People across all ethnic and racial lines use marijuana at roughly the same rate, but thearrests for marijuana are 80 percent black and Latino." Nixon said that the revenues from legalization should be prioritized to the communities that had been harmed by them, as a form of "reparations". She said that people in jail on marijuana charges should be released, criminal records for marijuana use should be expunged, and marijuana revenues should be used to help them reenter society.[67][68] However, many black leaders were offended by her use of the term "reparations".[69][70][71][72]
On June 22, 2018, during a campaign event in New York City, Nixon referred to theU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a "terrorist organization" and called for the agency to be abolished.[73][74][75] She later reiterated her claim in a Twitter post.[76]
On May 23, 2018, Nixon and other potential Democratic challengers to Cuomo were eliminated from the Democratic party endorsement at the state Democratic Convention after failing to meet the 25% state delegate threshold needed to appear on the ballot.[77] Nixon filed a petition with 65,000 signatures, more than four times the 15,000 required, to force a primary election.[78] The primary was held on September 13.[79] With 93% of precincts reporting, Cuomo received 65% of votes and Nixon got 35%.[80]
On October 5, 2018, the Working Families Party removed Nixon's name from their ticket after deciding to endorse Cuomo and Hochul, thus ensuring that Nixon would not appear on the general election ballot.[81]
In August 2021, Cuomo was forced to resign as governor following allegations of sexual harassment by women who worked in his office.[82] As a result of the scandal, he was stripped of the honorary Emmy given to him for his televised Covid briefings in 2020.[83] After he left office, Nixon tweeted on August 24, 2021: "The difference between me and Andrew Cuomo? Neither of us is governor, but I still have my Emmy(s)."[84]
Nixon supportsSouth Africa's genocide case against Israel. She contributed to a video series, published by the Palestine Festival of Literature, in support of South Africa's motion,accusing Israel of genocide against civilians in Gaza.[85][86] In December 2023, she joined a five-dayhunger strike outside theWhite House calling for aceasefire.[87] She is a signatory of theFilm Workers for Palestine boycott pledge that was published in September 2025.[88]
Nixon endorsedZohran Mamdani in the2025 New York City Democratic mayoral primary and hosted a fundraiser for his campaign.[89] She also appeared in a digital advertisement paid for by theWorking Families Party opposingAndrew Cuomo.[90]
From 1988 to 2003, Nixon was in a relationship with educator Danny Mozes.[91] They have two children together. In June 2018, Nixon revealed that her older child istransgender.[92][93]
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In 2004, Nixon began dating education activist Christine Marinoni. Nixon and Marinoni became engaged in April 2009,[94] and married in New York City on May 27, 2012, with Nixon wearing a custom-made, pale green dress byCarolina Herrera.[91][95] Marinoni gave birth to a son in 2011.[96]
Regarding hersexual orientation, Nixon remarked in 2007: "I don't really feel I've changed. I'd been with men all my life, and I'd never fallen in love with a woman. But when I did, it didn't seem so strange. I'm just a woman in love with another woman."[97] She identified herself asbisexual in 2012,[98] and asqueer starting in 2018.[99] Prior to the legalization ofsame-sex marriage in Washington state (Marinoni's home state), Nixon had taken a public stand supporting the issue, and hosted a fundraising event in support ofWashington Referendum 74.[100]
In October 2006, Nixon was diagnosed withbreast cancer during a routinemammography.[101] She initially decided not to go public with her illness because she feared it might hurt her career,[102] but in April 2008, she announced her battle with the disease in an interview withGood Morning America.[101] Since then, Nixon has become a breast cancer activist. She convinced the head ofNBC to air her breast cancer special in aprime time program,[102] and became an ambassador forSusan G. Komen for the Cure.[103]
She and Marinoni live in theKips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.[104][105] Nixon is not Jewish, but the father of her children is,[106] and her family attendsCongregation Beit Simchat Torah, an LGBT synagogue.[106][107][108]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn | Alice | TV film |
| My Body, My Child | Nancy | ||
| 1988 | Tanner '88 | Alex Tanner | 10 episodes |
| 1989 | Gideon Oliver | Allison Parrish Slocum | Episode: "Sleep Well, Professor Oliver" |
| The Equalizer | Jackie | Episode: "Silent Fury" | |
| 1990 | The Young Riders | Annie | 2 episodes |
| Law & Order | Laura di Biasi | Episode: "Subterranean Homeboy Blues" | |
| A Green Journey | Janet | TV film | |
| 1991 | Love, Lies and Murder | Donna | Miniseries |
| 1993 | Murder, She Wrote | Alice Morgan | Episode: "Threshold of Fear" |
| 1996 | Early Edition | Sheila | Episode: "Baby" |
| Nash Bridges | Melissa | Episode: "Aloha Nash" | |
| 1998–2004 | Sex and the City | Miranda Hobbes | Main role; 94 episodes |
| 1999 | The Outer Limits | Trudy | Episode: "Alien Radio" |
| Touched by an Angel | Melina Richardson/Sister Sarah | Episode: "Into the Fire" | |
| 2004 | Tanner on Tanner | Alex Tanner | 4 episodes |
| 2005 | ER | Ellie | Episode: "Alone in a Crowd" |
| Warm Springs | Eleanor Roosevelt | TV film | |
| House | Anica Jovanovich | Episode: "Deception" | |
| 2007 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Janis Donovan | Episode: Alternate |
| 2010–2011 | The Big C | Rebecca | 10 episodes |
| 2011 | Too Big to Fail | Michele Davis | TV film |
| Law & Order: Criminal Intent | Amanda Reese | Episode: "Icarus" | |
| 2012 | World Without End | Petronilla | 7 episodes |
| 30 Rock | Herself | Episode: "Kidnapped by Danger" | |
| 2013–2014 | Alpha House | Senator Carly Armiston | 6 episodes |
| 2014 | Hannibal | Kade Prurnell | 4 episodes |
| 2015 | The Affair | Marilyn | Episode: "210" |
| 2016 | Broad City | Barb | Episode: "2016" |
| Killing Reagan | Nancy Reagan | TV film | |
| 2020 | Ratched | Gwendolyn Briggs | Main cast |
| 2021–2025 | And Just Like That... | Miranda Hobbes | 33 episodes, also executive producer and director |
| 2022–present | The Gilded Age | Ada Brook | Main cast |
| Year | Title | Role | Venue | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980–1981 | The Philadelphia Story | Dinah Lord | Vivian Beaumont Theatre | 60 performances | [109] |
| 1984–1985 | The Real Thing | Debbie (replacement) | Plymouth Theatre | 566 performances | |
| Hurlyburly | Donna | Ethel Barrymore Theatre | 343 performances | ||
| 1989–1990 | The Heidi Chronicles | Becky / Clara / Denise | Plymouth Theatre | 622 performances | |
| 1994 | Angels in America: Millennium Approaches | Harper Pitt (replacement) Martin Heller (replacement) | Walter Kerr Theatre | 367 performances | |
| Angels in America: Perestroika | Harper Pitt (replacement) | 217 performances | |||
| 1995 | Indiscretions | Madeleine | Ethel Barrymore Theatre | 220 performances | |
| 1997–1998 | The Last Night of Ballyhoo | Lala Levy (replacement) | Helen Hayes Theatre | 556 performances | |
| 2001–2002 | The Women | Mary Haines | American Airlines Theatre | 77 performances | |
| 2006 | Rabbit Hole | Becca | Biltmore Theatre | 77 performances | |
| 2012 | Wit | Vivian Bearing, Ph.D. | Samuel J. Friedman Theatre | 60 performances | |
| 2014–2015 | The Real Thing | Charlotte | American Airlines Theare | 76 performances | |
| 2017 | The Little Foxes | Birdie Hubbard / Regina Giddens | Samuel J. Friedman Theatre | 87 performances |
Nixon has received numerous awards including twoPrimetime Emmy Awards, aGrammy Award, twoScreen Actors Guild Awards, and twoTony Awards. She has also received several honors including the Muse Award presented by theNew York Women in Film & Television in 2008, theVito Russo Award presented by theGLAAD Media Awards in 2010, theYale University Artist for Equality award in 2013[110] and the Faith Hubley Memorial Award during theProvincetown International Film Festival in 2016.[citation needed]
There are a lot of reasons to do it," the challenger said of legalization, "but first and foremost, because it's a racial-justice issue.
