Kristine Nielsen

Kristine E. Nielsen, born May 28, 1955, in the Washington, D.C., and Bethesda, Maryland, areas, is an American actress whose Broadway career spans from 1985 to 2025. She trained at Northwestern University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, and subsequently at the Yale School of Drama, where she received a Master of Fine Arts degree. Among her classmates at Yale were Frances McDormand and Tony Shalhoub. Nielsen is married to actor Brent Langdon.

Her family background includes her father, Homer Nielsen (1912–2005), a U.S. Navy captain born in the Philippines, and her mother, Eloise (née Gerard) Nielsen (1918–2009), a Democrat who worked in government, including a position under President Jimmy Carter. Her paternal grandfather, Harold Nielsen (1879–1958), had Danish ancestry and served in World War I. Her great-grandfather, Lewis Gerard (1833–1914), immigrated from France and fought for the Union in the Civil War. Her sister was Karen (Nielsen) Grammaticas (1951–2007), wife of Dr. Andrew Grammaticas. The family spent summers on Cape Cod.

Nielsen made her Off-Broadway debut in 1984 in a New York Shakespeare Festival production of Henry V at the Delacorte Theater, playing Mistress Quickly. Her Broadway debut followed in 1985, when she appeared in The Iceman Cometh as Pearl. She returned to Broadway in 1997 in Jackie: An American Life, portraying multiple characters including Rose Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. In 2000, she played Ninetta in The Green Bird, and in 2005 she took on the role of Eunice Hubbell in A Streetcar Named Desire, opposite Natasha Richardson as Blanche Dubois and Amy Ryan as Stella. In 2008, she appeared in two Broadway productions: Dangerous Liaisons, playing Madame de Volanges opposite Laura Linney as Marquise de Merteuil, and To Be or Not to Be, in which she played Anna. She played The Storyteller in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson in 2010.

Nielsen earned her first Tony Award nomination in 2013 for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for her portrayal of Sonia in Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. She returned to Broadway in 2014 as Penny Sycamore in You Can't Take It with You, a production that ran for 169 performances before closing on February 22, 2015. In 2017, she played Monica Reed in a limited run of Present Laughter alongside Kevin Kline and Cobie Smulders. Her second Tony nomination came in 2019, for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play, for her work in Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus. Additional Broadway credits include SMASH.

Nielsen's Off-Broadway work has also earned significant recognition. She won an Obie Award for Best Actress for her role as Madeline Newell in Dog Opera in 1995. She won a second Obie Award and received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Best Featured Actress for playing Mrs. Siezmagraff in Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation in 1999. In 1988, she appeared opposite Laura Dern in The Palace of Amateurs. She starred as Veronica in Durang's Miss Witherspoon at Playwrights Horizons in 2005, and in 2007 played the lead role of Mary in A. R. Gurney's Crazy Mary at Playwrights Horizons, a production that also starred Sigourney Weaver. That same year she portrayed Bootsie Carp in Charles Busch's Die, Mommie, Die! at New World Stages. Nielsen has additionally performed at the Guthrie Theater and in regional theatre productions.

Her screen work includes a 1990 episode of Tales from the Crypt, her first television appearance, as well as appearances on Third Watch, Conviction, two episodes of Law and Order, and three episodes of Political Animals, in which she played Alice opposite Sigourney Weaver. In 2022, she starred in the HBO series The Gilded Age. Her film credits include Advice from a Caterpillar (1999), Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks (2000), in which she played Emily Bailey, The Savages (2007) starring Laura Linney, Morning Glory (2010) starring Rachel McAdams, and That's What She Said (2012).