Cady Huffman

Cady Huffman is an American actress born on February 2, 1965, in Santa Barbara, California, whose Broadway career has spanned from 1983 to 2013. She is best known for originating the role of Ulla in Mel Brooks's The Producers, a performance that earned her both the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical in 2001.

Huffman's Broadway career began when she joined La Cage aux Folles in 1985 as a replacement cast member. That early credit led directly to her being cast in Bob Fosse's Big Deal, establishing her as a presence in major musical productions. Her work in The Will Rogers Follies in 1991 brought her a Tony Award nomination, further cementing her standing on Broadway. Her portrayal of Ulla in the original cast of The Producers marked the peak of her stage recognition, and she later reunited with her Producers co-star Nathan Lane in The Nance, which opened on Broadway on April 15, 2013. Her performance in that production earned her a 2013 Outer Critics Circle Award nomination. Additional Broadway credits include Short Talks on the Universe.

Beyond Broadway, Huffman has worked extensively in film and television. Her film debut came in Hero in 1992, and she subsequently appeared in Space Marines, Romance and Cigarettes, The Nanny Diaries, and The Company Men in 2010. During 2003 and 2004, she produced, starred in, and served as production designer for the independent film Sunday on the Rocks, directed by Joe Morton. On television, she has had guest roles on Frasier, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, and Mad About You, and appeared as herself in multiple episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm during the show's fourth season, whose plot centered on Larry David joining the cast of The Producers. She appeared in episodes of The Good Wife in 2011 and 2014. In daytime television, she took over the role of Dr. Paige Miller on One Life to Live from Kimberlin Brown in August 2005, holding the part until early 2006 when she was replaced by Alexandra Neil. She later played Calista Lockhart on Days of Our Lives in 2021. She also served as a recurring food judge on Food Network's Iron Chef America, where host Alton Brown described her as the Kitty Carlisle of the series.

Huffman's stage work has extended to Off-Broadway and regional theater. In July and August 2007, she starred in Surface to Air, written by David Epstein and directed by James Naughton, an Off-Broadway production that represented a departure from her customary musical roles. In May 2009, she appeared in the new musical Pirates! at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston. In 2014, she took on a major role in the Off-Broadway rock musical Revolution in the Elbow of Ragnar Agnarsson Furniture Painter. She has also moved into directing, helming City of Light, a musical by Gabrielle Wagner, Julie Weiner, and Jan Roper, at the SheNYC Summer Theater Festival in July 2017, and directing a production of Cole Porter's Anything Goes at Black Rock Theater in Fairfield, Connecticut, in June 2023. Huffman currently resides in Brooklyn, New York City.