Nancy Travis

Nancy Ann Travis, born September 21, 1961, in Queens, New York, is an American actress whose career spans theater, film, and television. The daughter of Theresa, a social worker, and Gordon Travis, a sales executive, she was raised in Framingham, Massachusetts, and Baltimore, Maryland, and was brought up Roman Catholic. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from New York University.

Travis's professional career began in theater. Her first job after high school was performing in It's Hard to Be a Jew at The American Jewish Theatre in New York City. She also appeared in a stage production of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs and was a founding member of the Off-Broadway company Naked Angels, with whom she performed in Frank Pugliese's Aven U-Boys and in King of Connecticut. She made her Broadway debut in I'm Not Rappaport in 1985. She also performed in Athol Fugard's My Children, My Africa. Early in her career she appeared in commercials for Twinkies and Levi's Jeans.

Travis made her screen debut in 1985 in the made-for-television biographical film Malice in Wonderland, starring Elizabeth Taylor. The following year she received star billing in the two-part ABC miniseries Harem, opposite Omar Sharif. Her film breakthrough came in 1987 when she played Sylvia Bennington in the comedy Three Men and a Baby, alongside Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, and Ted Danson. The film grossed $240 million worldwide and ranked among the biggest American box office hits of that year. She reprised the role in the 1990 sequel Three Men and a Little Lady. In 1988, Travis had supporting roles in Married to the Mob and the sports drama Eight Men Out, and starred opposite Hal Holbrook and Eva Marie Saint in the television film I'll Be Home for Christmas.

Her film work in the early 1990s was prolific. In 1990 she starred as the wife of Andy García's character in the crime thriller Internal Affairs, appeared in the action comedy Loose Cannons, and joined Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. in Air America. In 1992 she co-starred with Bob Hoskins in Passed Away and portrayed Joan Barry — the woman who filed a paternity suit against Charlie Chaplin — in the biographical film Chaplin, opposite Robert Downey Jr. The following year she starred alongside Jeff Bridges and Kiefer Sutherland in The Vanishing and played the bride of Mike Myers' character in So I Married an Axe Murderer. Also in 1993, she appeared with Peter Gallagher and Isabella Rossellini in a Tom Cruise-directed episode of the Showtime anthology series Fallen Angels. In 1994 she co-starred with Michael J. Fox in Greedy, and in 1995 appeared in Fluke, Destiny Turns on the Radio with Dylan McDermott, and the HBO film Body Language opposite Tom Berenger. She appeared in Whoopi Goldberg's comedy Bogus in 1996.

Travis transitioned substantially to television beginning in 1995, when she took the lead role of a female television cop-show executive producer in the CBS sitcom Almost Perfect, which ran for two seasons before cancellation. She also performed voice-over work on the animated series Duckman from 1994 to 1997, appeared in an episode of Robert Altman's anthology series Gun in 1997, and starred in and produced the Lifetime film My Last Love in 1999. That same year she starred in and produced the CBS sitcom Work with Me, which was cancelled after four episodes due to low ratings. In 2000 she appeared in the drama Auggie Rose and co-starred with Three Men and a Baby colleague Tom Selleck in the political comedy-drama Running Mates.

In 2002, Travis took the lead role of psychology professor Dr. Joyce Reardon in the four-hour television adaptation of Stephen King's Rose Red. That same year she joined the CBS sitcom Becker as Chris Connor, replacing original female lead Terry Farrell for the show's final two seasons. She appeared in the 2005 comedy-drama The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and the 2007 ensemble romantic drama The Jane Austen Book Club, adapted from Karen Joy Fowler's 2004 novel of the same name. From 2007 to 2009 she starred in the TBS sitcom The Bill Engvall Show as Bill's wife Susan, and in 2009 appeared in the Hallmark Channel film Safe Harbor opposite Treat Williams.

In 2011, Travis was cast as Vanessa Baxter in the ABC sitcom Last Man Standing, opposite Tim Allen. The show was cancelled in 2017 after six seasons and 130 episodes, then revived by Fox in fall 2018, debuting on September 28 of that year with its highest ratings since season two. The series concluded in 2021 after a total of 194 episodes. From 2017 to 2018, Travis played Brendan Gleeson's ex-wife in the crime thriller series Mr. Mercedes. Beginning in 2018, she co-starred opposite Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin in the Netflix comedy series The Kominsky Method, created by Chuck Lorre, a role she held through 2019. In 2023 she starred as Isabel McMurray, the family matriarch, in the Hallmark Channel neo-Western drama series Ride, which was cancelled after one season.

In her personal life, Travis married Robert N. Fried in 1994. Fried served as former president and CEO of Savoy Pictures and founder and former CEO of Hallmark Movies Now, and is currently CEO of Niagen Bioscience. The couple has two sons. Travis starred in the 2007 short film Sally, which featured one of her sons and was written by her husband.