Kyra Sedgwick

Kyra Minturn Sedgwick was born on August 19, 1965, in New York City, the daughter of Patricia Rosenwald, a speech teacher and educational and family therapist, and Henry Dwight Sedgwick V, a venture capitalist. Her mother was Jewish and her father was Episcopalian and of English heritage; Sedgwick has identified as Jewish and participates in Passover Seders. Her parents separated when she was four and divorced when she was six. A member of the prominent Sedgwick family, she counts among her ancestors William Ellery, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence, and Ellery Sedgwick, an editor of The Atlantic Monthly. Her siblings include actor Robert Sedgwick and half-sister Holly, whose sons are R&B singer George Nozuka, actor Philip Nozuka, and singer-songwriter Justin Nozuka. Jazz guitarist Mike Stern is also her half-sibling, actress Edie Sedgwick was her first cousin once removed, and writer John Sedgwick is her uncle. Sedgwick graduated from Friends Seminary and attended Sarah Lawrence College before transferring to the University of Southern California, where she earned a theater degree.

Sedgwick began her acting career in 1982 on the television soap opera Another World, portraying Julia Shearer, the troubled granddaughter of Liz Matthews. Her Broadway career spanned from 1988 to 1998 and included appearances in the comedy Twelfth Night and the play Ah, Wilderness!. Her stage work earned her a Theatre World Award in 1989. That same year, she appeared in Oliver Stone's Oscar-winning film Born on the Fourth of July, playing the role of Donna. In 1992, she starred in Cameron Crowe's Singles and took the title role in the Emmy Award-winning television film Miss Rose White, portraying a Jewish immigrant reconciling her ethnic identity. She received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for her performance in the 1995 film Something to Talk About. Additional film credits from the 1990s include Heart and Souls (1993), Phenomenon (1996), and Critical Care (1997).

Sedgwick is perhaps best known for her starring role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson in the TNT crime drama The Closer, which ran from 2005 to 2012. For that performance she received six consecutive Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress in a Television Drama Series, winning once in 2007, along with five consecutive Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, winning once in 2010, and seven Screen Actors Guild nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series. By 2007, she was earning approximately $300,000 per episode. The series concluded after its seventh season on August 13, 2012, with TNT attributing the decision to end the show to Sedgwick. A sequel series, Major Crimes, premiered immediately following the finale but did not feature Sedgwick. She also had a recurring role as Chief Madeline Wuntch on the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine and played the lead role of Jean Raines in the comedy pilot My Village, which was picked up by ABC and retitled Call Your Mother for the 2020-2021 television season. In 2023, she appeared as Aunt Julia in the second season of the drama series The Summer I Turned Pretty.

Sedgwick has collaborated professionally with her husband, actor Kevin Bacon, on several projects, including Pyrates (1991), The Woodsman (2004), The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022), and The Best You Can (2025). The two married on September 4, 1988, approximately eighteen months after meeting on the set of the PBS adaptation of Lanford Wilson's Lemon Sky, and have two children, Travis Sedgwick Bacon and actress Sosie Bacon. The family divides their time between New York City and a farm in Connecticut. In 2017, Sedgwick made her directorial debut with Story of a Girl, a Lifetime television film based on Sara Zarr's 2007 novel of the same name, which starred both Kevin Bacon and Sosie Bacon. She also produced the TNT series Proof, which debuted in 2015 and ran for one season.

Among her honors, Sedgwick was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2009, receiving a star at 6356 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to television. She received the Copper Wing Tribute Award at the Phoenix Film Festival in 2005, was honored with the President's Award by the Society of Camera Operators in 2013, and received the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award at the Denver International Film Festival in 2017.