Polly Draper

Polly Carey Draper, born June 15, 1955, in Gary, Indiana, is an American actress, screenwriter, director, and filmmaker whose career spans stage, television, and film. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University in 1977 and a Master of Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama in 1980. Her father, William Henry Draper III, served as CEO of the United Nations Development Programme and president of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, and her grandfather, William Henry Draper Jr., was a banker and diplomat. Her mother, Phyllis, was a Peace Corps administrator. Draper grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and in Palo Alto and Arlington, California. Her siblings include venture capitalist Tim Draper and Rebecca Draper.

Draper launched her acting career off-Broadway, with an early role in Split in 1980. She rose to wider recognition playing Ellyn Warren in the ABC drama series Thirtysomething, which ran from 1987 to 1991 and earned her a 1988 Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. In 1993, she appeared as Adrian in the NBC television movie adaptation of Danielle Steel's Heartbeat and starred in the off-Broadway production of Four Dogs and a Bone, the latter earning her a New York Magazine award for Best Broadway Actress. Her Broadway career extended from 1992 to 2005, during which she starred in Crazy He Calls Me and appeared in both Brooklyn Boy and Closer. She played Nina in the Broadway production of Brooklyn Boy in 2005.

In 1998, Draper made her screenwriting debut with the film The Tic Code, in which she also played Laura Caraday. The story was influenced by the life of her husband, musician Michael Wolff, who has Tourette syndrome and also composed the film's score. Draper had met Wolff in 1989 while making a cameo on the syndicated late-night talk show Arsenio Hall, where he served as bandleader. She had previously been married to playwright Kevin Wade. Draper and Wolff have two sons, Nat and Alex. The Tic Code brought Draper the Bronze Gryphon Award for Best Actress at the Giffoni Film Festival.

In 2003, Draper wrote and starred in the off-Broadway play Getting Into Heaven at The Flea Theater, portraying Cat, a lesbian singer with a drug addiction. She co-wrote the music for the production with Wolff and their son Nat. The following year, in mid-2004, she wrote and directed The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie as an independent film, which she later adapted into the Nickelodeon musical comedy series The Naked Brothers Band, for which she served as creator, showrunner, head writer, and director from 2007 to 2009. The series featured Draper alongside her husband and their sons Nat and Alex, who played a father and his sons, and also included her niece Jesse as the band's babysitter. The film received the Audience Award for a Family Feature Film at the 2005 Hamptons International Film Festival. The television series earned Draper two Writers Guild of America Award nominations; she won in the Children's Script: Long Form or Special category for the TV movie Polar Bears in 2009.

Draper's subsequent screen work included a recurring guest role on the Showtime series The Big C in 2010, appearances in the film Side Effects and the CBS drama Golden Boy in 2013, and a role in the film Obvious Child in 2014. In 2018, she wrote, directed, and co-starred as Sally in Stella's Last Weekend, a film in which her sons Nat and Alex also appeared. That film won the Grand Prize at the San Antonio Film Festival. She directed the film Once Upon a Main Street in 2020 and appeared in Emma Seligman's Shiva Baby the same year, playing the main character's mother, Debbie. Draper is a recipient of a Writers Guild of America Award and has received additional recognition across her work in independent film and television.