Ellen Greene

Ellen Greene is an American actress and singer born on February 22, 1951, in Brooklyn, New York. Her father was a dentist and her mother worked as a guidance counselor. She attended W. Tresper Clarke High School in Westbury, New York, and spent summers at Cejwin Camps in Port Jervis, New York, where she performed in musical theatre productions. Greene has built a career spanning stage, film, and television, with particular prominence in musical theatre and cabaret. She is widely recognized for originating the role of Audrey in the off-Broadway and film versions of Little Shop of Horrors, and for her role as Vivian Charles in the ABC television series Pushing Daisies.

Greene launched her professional career as a nightclub singer, performing at venues including The Brothers and Sisters, Continental Baths, Grand Finale, and Reno Sweeney's, where she received favorable notices from critics including Rex Reed, George Bell, and John S. Wilson. During this period she also befriended performer Peter Allen. Her Broadway debut came in 1973 when she starred in the title role of Rachael Lily Rosenbloom and Don't You Ever Forget It, a production that completed seven previews but closed before its official opening. She subsequently played Chrissy in Joseph Papp's production of In the Boom Boom Room off-Broadway at the Public Theatre in November and December 1974, and appeared in the 1976 film Next Stop, Greenwich Village in the role of Sarah.

Continuing her association with Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival, Greene took on the role of Jenny in The Threepenny Opera at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in Lincoln Center in 1976, a performance that earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 1977. She later played the role of Suzanne/The Little Rose in The Little Prince and the Aviator in 1981, a production that, like her Broadway debut, closed before officially opening. It was at the WPA Theater that Greene met composer Alan Menken and lyricist and director Howard Ashman, a connection that led directly to her being cast as Audrey in the original off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors beginning in 1982. That performance earned her a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Musical in 1983. She reprised the role in the 1986 film adaptation opposite Rick Moranis, and returned to it once more in 2015 for the Encores! Off-Center staged concert at New York City Center. Greene's Broadway career continued with a national tour of They're Playing Our Song in 1979 and a return to Broadway in 1993, when she played Mabel in a revival of Three Men on a Horse.

Beyond Broadway, Greene appeared in the films I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982), Talk Radio (1987), and Pump Up the Volume (1990), and provided the voice of Goldie in the Don Bluth animated film Rock-a-Doodle (1991). Her television work has included appearances on Miami Vice, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, Cybill, Law and Order, Suddenly Susan, The X-Files, and Heroes, as well as a recurring role as Vivian Charles in Pushing Daisies beginning in 2007. In 1983 she voiced the character Creeping Ivy in the animated television special The Magic of Herself the Elf. She appeared in five episodes of The Young and the Restless in 2011 as Primrose DeVille and in two episodes of Bunheads in 2012. She also portrayed Doctor Gale Macones in The Walking Dead Webisodes: The Oath.

Greene's stage work outside of Broadway has included the role of Miss Adelaide in a concert production of Guys and Dolls at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in July and August 2009, and an appearance in the musical Betwixt! at the Trafalgar Studios in London's West End from July 26 to August 20, 2011. In 2004 she released an album titled In His Eyes, accompanied by her then-husband and musical director Christian Klikovits, whom she had married on September 25, 2003. Her first marriage had been to Tibor Hardik; both marriages ended in divorce. Greene also participated in the 2016 Democratic National Convention's "Fight Song" video.