Tammy Blanchard

Tammy Blanchard is an American actress born on December 14, 1976, in Bayonne, New Jersey, where she attended Mary J. Donohoe School and Bayonne High School. She has built a career spanning television, film, and stage, with Broadway appearances between 2003 and 2018.

Blanchard began her professional acting career in 1997 on the soap opera Guiding Light, where she originated the role of Drew Jacobs, a spoiled wealthy young woman. Her first scene on the show was opposite Taye Diggs, who had a brief role as a record producer. The character grew in prominence over the course of her run, and by the time Blanchard departed in 2000, Drew Jacobs had become a fan favorite. She then took on the role of the teenage Judy Garland in the 2001 ABC television docudrama Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, portraying the younger counterpart to Judy Davis's adult Garland. The performance earned Blanchard a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, as well as a Golden Globe Award nomination.

Her Broadway debut came in 2003 with the revival of the musical Gypsy, in which she played Louise opposite Bernadette Peters. The role earned Blanchard a Tony Award nomination as well as a Theatre World Award. She returned to Broadway in 2011 as Hedy LaRue in the revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which ran from March 27, 2011, through May 20, 2012, and brought her a second Tony Award nomination, this time for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Her third Broadway credit came in 2018, when she appeared as Cora in The Iceman Cometh, which began performances on March 23 of that year.

Beyond Broadway, Blanchard played Marianne Mulvaney in the 2002 Lifetime film We Were the Mulvaneys and Sally Reid in the 2004 CBS television film When Angels Come to Town alongside Peter Falk. Her film work includes The Good Shepherd (2006), in which she portrayed the deaf lover of Matt Damon's character; Bella (2006), which won the top prize at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival; and The Ramen Girl (2008) and Deadline (2009), both made with Brittany Murphy. She co-starred with Jessica Lange in the CBS remake of Sybil (2007), playing a woman with dissociative identity disorder. In 2008, she appeared in Living Proof as the first woman depicted as having been treated with the breast cancer drug Herceptin. Her 2010 credits include Amish Grace, a Lifetime film based on the West Nickel Mines School shooting in which she played Amy Roberts, the widow of a murderer, and Rabbit Hole, in which she appeared alongside Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart as Kidman's sister.

Blanchard appeared in the film Union Square, co-written and directed by Nancy Savoca, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011 and screened in New York City in July 2012. In 2014, she played Florinda in director Rob Marshall's film adaptation of Into the Woods. The following year she portrayed Eden in Karyn Kusama's thriller The Invitation (2015), and in 2016 she appeared in Tallulah, which debuted on Netflix.

In addition to her Broadway work, Blanchard played Audrey in the Off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors, which opened at the Westside Theatre on October 17, 2019. That performance earned her a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Musical and a Grammy Award nomination for Best Musical Theater Album. Blanchard continues to reside in her hometown of Bayonne, New Jersey, and has a daughter.