Jayne Atkinson

Jayne Atkinson is a British-American actress born on 18 February 1959 in Bournemouth, England. Her family relocated to the United States in 1968, when she was nine years old, and she grew up in North Miami Beach, Florida. She graduated from Pine Crest School in 1977, where she was elected Homecoming Queen, before earning a BS in Communications from Northwestern University in 1981, where she was a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority alongside fellow student Laura Innes. She subsequently completed an MFA at the Yale Drama School in 1985.

Following work in regional theatre, Atkinson made her off-Broadway debut in 1987 in the Manhattan Theatre Club's production of Bloody Poetry. That same year she made her Broadway debut in a revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons. Her Broadway career, which spanned from 1987 to 2009, also included appearances in Tru, Ivanov, and productions of Henry VIII and The Art of Success. In 1996, she received a Drama Desk Award for Best Actress in a Play for her work in The Skriker. Her performance in the Roundabout Theatre Company's 1999 production of The Rainmaker earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play, and her role in the 2003 production of The Enchanted April brought her an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Drama Desk nomination, and a second Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play. In 2009, she starred as Ruth Condomine in a Broadway revival of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit alongside Rupert Everett, Christine Ebersole, and Angela Lansbury.

On television, Atkinson is recognized for her recurring role as Karen Hayes on 24, as BAU Section Chief Erin Strauss on Criminal Minds, as United States Vice President Teresa Hurst on Madam Secretary, and as U.S. Secretary of State Catherine Durant on House of Cards, opposite Kevin Spacey and her husband, actor Michel Gill, who played President Garrett Walker in the same series. Her performance in the television film Our Town earned her a Satellite Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Additional television credits include A Year in the Life, Parenthood, The X-Files, Law & Order, The Practice, and Gossip Girl. In film, she appeared as foster mother Annie Greenwood in Free Willy and Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, as well as in Blank Check, The Village, Syriana, and 12 and Holding.

Atkinson holds dual citizenship in the United Kingdom and the United States. She met actor Michel Gill during a 1989 production of The Heiress at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, Connecticut, and the two are married with one son.