Stephanie Kurtzuba

Stephanie Kurtzuba is an American actress of Polish heritage whose work spans Broadway, film, and television. She was raised in Omaha, Nebraska, where she attended Omaha Central High School and began performing in local theater at age 10, playing an orphan pickpocket in the musical Oliver. She also won the Miss Nebraska Pre-Teen pageant during her youth. After briefly studying journalism at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, she was accepted to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she earned a degree in acting.

Following her graduation, Kurtzuba worked in experimental off-off-Broadway productions before transitioning to commercial theater. Her Broadway debut came in 2003 when she performed as part of a backup trio to Hugh Jackman in The Boy from Oz. She subsequently joined the original Broadway cast of Mary Poppins in 2006 and the original Broadway cast of Billy Elliot the Musical in 2008, with those productions bringing her to the Tony Awards ceremonies in 2007 and 2009, respectively. Her Off-Broadway work includes the 2018 Signature Theatre revival of Stephen Adly Guirgis's Our Lady of 121st St., directed by Phylicia Rashad; The Joys of Sex, directed by Jeremy Dobrish at the Variety Arts Theater; and Bat Boy: The Musical, directed by Scott Schwartz at the Union Square Theatre.

On screen, Kurtzuba has appeared in several films directed by Martin Scorsese. In The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), she played Kimmie Belzer, a single mother hired by Jordan Belfort and the only female stockbroker at his firm. In The Irishman (2019), starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, she portrayed Irene, the wife of De Niro's character. In the 2014 film adaptation of Annie, she played Mrs. Kovacevic, a social services clerk performing with a Russian accent, and appeared on the soundtrack recording of "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here." Her performance in Annie received notice from the Los Angeles Times and Variety. She also appeared in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and in Away We Go opposite John Krasinski.

Kurtzuba's television work includes recurring roles as Olivia on CBS's The Good Wife, as Sergeant and later Captain Paula McNichols on Blue Bloods, as cult member Sabrina on HBO's The Leftovers, and in the Paramount Network miniseries Waco. Additional television appearances include Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Elementary, and Bull.

Kurtzuba married Joshua Coakley in 2005. The two met while she was performing at the Alley Theatre in Houston and he was working in the props department on the same production. They live in New York City and have two sons. In Omaha, Kurtzuba co-owns West Lanes Bowling Center alongside her father and two siblings; the bowling alley was originally built by her maternal grandparents in 1955. Since 2017, she has served as a spokesperson for Red Baron Pizza.