Kristin Davis

Kristin Landen Davis, also credited as Kristin Lee Davis, was born on February 23, 1965, in Boulder, Colorado. Her parents divorced when she was an infant, and she was subsequently adopted by her stepfather, Keith Davis, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, following his 1968 marriage to her mother, Dorothy, a university data analyst. Davis has three stepsisters from her father's first marriage. The family relocated early in her childhood to Columbia, South Carolina, where her stepfather served as provost and taught psychology at the University of South Carolina. Davis has credited a Workshop Theatre production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in which she was cast at age nine, as the origin of her desire to act. She completed her secondary education at A.C. Flora High School in 1983, then moved to New Jersey to attend Rutgers University, where she earned a BFA in acting from the Mason Gross School of the Arts in 1987.

Following her graduation, Davis relocated to New York City, where she waited tables and later co-opened a yoga studio before pursuing on-screen work. Her earliest television appearances included episodes of the daytime drama General Hospital in 1991, followed by guest roles on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and ER. Her career advanced significantly in 1995 when she was cast as the villainous Brooke Armstrong Campbell on the Fox prime time soap opera Melrose Place, a role she held for one season before the character was written out. She subsequently guest-starred in two episodes of Seinfeld. In 1998, Davis was cast as Charlotte York in the HBO romantic comedy series Sex and the City, remaining with the series through its conclusion in 1998. Along with her castmates, she received the Women in Film Lucy Award in 1999. Her performance in the final season earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film, both in 2004. During the run of the series, she also appeared in the Friends episode "The One with Ross's Library Book" and an episode of Will & Grace. Additional television work during this period included a leading role in the 1999 miniseries Atomic Train alongside Rob Lowe, the television films Blacktop (2000), Three Days (2001), and The Winning Season (2004), and hosting duties on VH1's 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons in 2003.

Davis reprised the role of Charlotte York in the feature film Sex and the City (2008), which grossed $415 million worldwide and marked her first film to reach number one at the United States box office, and again in Sex and the City 2 (2010), which earned $290 million globally. She returned to the character once more in the HBO Max revival series And Just Like That..., which ran from 2021 through 2025. Her film work outside the franchise includes The Shaggy Dog (2006) opposite Tim Allen, Deck the Halls (2006) opposite Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito, the romantic comedy Couples Retreat (2009) co-starring Jon Favreau, and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, which opened theatrically in February 2012 and surpassed $100 million at the domestic box office. Earlier film credits include a debut appearance in the 1988 comedy slasher film Doom Asylum and secondary roles in Nine Months (1995) and Sour Grapes (1998), as well as The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3D (2005). In 2019, Davis starred in and produced the Netflix romantic comedy-drama Holiday in the Wild, a project connected to her philanthropic work with elephants. She also starred in and produced the 2021 thriller Deadly Illusions, in which she played a bestselling novelist who hires a young woman to care for her twin children.

Later television credits include starring in and producing the Lifetime film Of Two Minds in 2012, a starring role in the CBS sitcom Bad Teacher in 2014, the Hallmark Channel film A Heavenly Christmas in 2016, and hosting the Fox reality series Labor of Love in 2020.

Davis made her Broadway debut in July 2012, replacing Kerry Butler in the revival of Gore Vidal's The Best Man at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, playing the role of Mabel Cantwell. Two years later, she made her West End debut at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, in March 2014, portraying Beth Gallagher in the original stage production of Fatal Attraction.

Beyond performance, Davis has been a Global Ambassador for Oxfam since 2004, traveling to Haiti, Mozambique, and South Africa in support of the organization's work. In 2011, she gave an interview with BBC News describing conditions at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya following a visit during which she witnessed the effects of drought. A 2009 trip to Africa, during which she encountered an abandoned baby elephant and arranged for its transfer to a wildlife rehabilitation center, deepened her involvement in elephant conservation. In 2015, she received a producer credit on the documentary Gardeners of Eden, which addresses the illegal ivory trade. In June 2008, department store chain Belk announced a partnership with Davis for a ladies' apparel and accessories line that launched in 125 locations and online, with Davis citing her South Carolina upbringing as part of her motivation for the collaboration; the arrangement was discontinued by Belk in late 2009.