Bernadette Peters

Bernadette Peters, born Bernadette Lazzara on February 28, 1948, in Ozone Park, Queens, New York, is an American actress and singer whose professional career spans more than six decades across Broadway, film, television, solo concerts, and recordings. The youngest of three children in an Italian-American family, Peters is the daughter of Peter Lazzara, a bread delivery truck driver, and Marguerite Lazzara, who introduced her daughter to performing by placing her on the television program Juvenile Jury at age three and a half. As a child, Peters also appeared on Name That Tune and multiple times on The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour. Her siblings are casting director Donna DeSeta and Joseph Lazzara. During her teen years she attended Quintano's School for Young Professionals.

Peters obtained her Actors Equity Card in January 1958 at age nine, adopting the stage name Bernadette Peters — derived from her father's first name — to avoid ethnic typecasting. Her professional stage debut came that same month in This Is Goggle, a comedy directed by Otto Preminger that closed during out-of-town tryouts. Television work followed quickly, including a role as Anna Stieman in a Kraft Mystery Theatre production of A Boy Called Ciske on NBC in May 1958, and an appearance in a Hallmark Hall of Fame production in December 1958 alongside Richard Thomas, Jessica Tandy, and Margaret Hamilton. She made her New York stage debut at age ten playing Tessie in the New York City Center revival of The Most Happy Fella in 1959.

At thirteen, Peters joined the second national tour of Gypsy as one of the Hollywood Blondes and as understudy for Dainty June, during which she first met her long-time accompanist, conductor, and arranger Marvin Laird. She subsequently played Dainty June in summer stock the following summer and recorded her first single in 1962. Summer stock work in 1964 included Liesl in The Sound of Music and Jenny in Riverwind at the Mt. Gretna Playhouse in Pennsylvania, with Riverwind again at the Bucks County Playhouse in 1966. After graduating high school, she appeared Off-Broadway in The Penny Friend in 1966 and Curley McDimple in 1967, and served as a standby on Broadway in The Girl in the Freudian Slip in 1967. Her Broadway debut came later that year in Johnny No-Trump. In 1968 she appeared on Broadway as George M. Cohan's sister Josie opposite Joel Grey in George M!, earning the Theatre World Award.

Her portrayal of Ruby in the 1968 Off-Broadway production of Dames at Sea — a parody of 1930s musicals — brought Peters critical acclaim and her first Drama Desk Award. She had previously appeared in an earlier 1966 version of the same show at the Off-Off-Broadway venue Caffe Cino. On Broadway, she next took on the role of Gelsomina in the 1969 musical La Strada, an adaptation of the Italian film; the production closed after a single performance despite favorable notices for Peters. A revival of On the Town in 1971, in which she played Hildy, earned her her first Tony Award nomination. She played Mabel Normand in Mack and Mabel in 1974, receiving another Tony nomination, and the production's cast album became widely popular among musical theatre audiences.

Peters relocated to Los Angeles in the early 1970s to pursue film and television work, appearing in more than forty feature films or television films beginning in 1973. She appeared in Mel Brooks's Silent Movie in 1976, earning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. That same year she co-starred with Richard Crenna in the television series All's Fair, playing a young liberal photographer romantically involved with an older conservative columnist; she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best TV Actress in a Musical or Comedy for the role, though the series ran only one season. Peters starred opposite Steve Martin in The Jerk in 1979, a role Martin wrote specifically for her, and the two reteamed for Pennies from Heaven in 1981, in which she played Eileen Everson, a schoolteacher turned prostitute. That performance earned her the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Comedy or Musical. She also appeared in the 1982 film Annie. Peters was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her appearance on The Muppet Show in 1977, during which she sang Just One Person to Robin the Frog. She made eleven guest appearances on The Carol Burnett Show and also appeared with Carol Burnett in the 1972 television film Once Upon a Mattress. Peters hosted Saturday Night Live in November 1981 and performed and presented at the Academy Awards in 1976, 1981, 1983, 1987, and 1994.

In 1982, Peters returned to the New York stage after an eight-year absence in the Off-Broadway Manhattan Theatre Club production of the comedy-drama Sally and Marsha, a rare non-musical stage appearance for which she received a Drama Desk nomination. She returned to Broadway in 1984 as Dot and Marie in Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George, earning her third Tony nomination. Song and Dance followed in 1985, bringing her a fourth Tony nomination, and in 1986 she won her first Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for that production, along with a Drama Desk Award. She then originated the role of the Witch in Sondheim and Lapine's Into the Woods in 1987, a credit that appears among her verified Broadway productions. The Goodbye Girl brought her to Broadway in 1993.

Peters returned to Broadway in 1999 starring in Annie Get Your Gun, for which she won her second Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical as well as the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical. She took on the title role in Gypsy in 2003 and appeared in A Little Night Music in 2010 and the Sondheim revue Follies in 2011. In 2018 she joined the cast of Hello, Dolly!. Peters starred in Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends in the West End in 2023 and brought the production to Broadway in 2025, extending a Broadway performance record that stretches from 1959 to 2025. Across her career she has received seven Tony nominations, winning two competitive awards plus an honorary award, nine Drama Desk nominations with three wins, and has appeared on four Broadway cast albums that received Grammy Awards. She has also released six solo albums and performed regularly in solo concert engagements.

Peters's television work beyond her earlier credits includes recurring roles on Ally McBeal, Smash from 2012 to 2013, Mozart in the Jungle from 2014 to 2018, The Good Fight from 2017 to 2018, Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist from 2020 to 2021, and High Desert in 2023. She co-hosted the Tony Awards ceremony with Gregory Hines in 2002 and has served as a presenter at the ceremony on multiple occasions. Peters was born and raised in Ozone Park, New York, and her career encompasses a body of work across stage, screen, and recordings that spans more than six decades.