Vivian Nixon

Vivian Nichole Nixon, born May 31, 1984, in Miami, Florida, is an American actress and dancer whose work spans Broadway, television, film, and voice acting. She is one of three children of former NBA star Norm Nixon and actress and choreographer Debbie Allen, and was named after her grandmother Vivian Ayers-Allen. Her aunt is actress Phylicia Rashad, and her younger brother is basketball player Norm E. Nixon Jr. Nixon trained in gymnastics until age 13, when she left the sport after a fellow gymnast suffered a serious injury. She subsequently studied at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C. and at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, before enrolling in the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program in Dance.

During her final year of the Ailey/Fordham program, Nixon was cast in the Broadway production of Hot Feet, in which she played Kalimba, the ambitious young dancer at the center of the show's retelling of The Red Shoes set against a 1970s funk backdrop. Her Broadway career continued with appearances in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Memphis, with her stage work spanning 2006 to 2010. In 2007, Dance Magazine named her among its top 25 performers to watch. Her regional stage credits include the role of Anita in Alan Johnson's West Side Story, as well as roles in Bayou Legend, Pearl, Soul Possessed, Dreams, Brothers of the Knight, and The Hot Chocolate Nutcracker. She also performed on a European tour of West Side Story and in Harriet.

On television, Nixon held secondary roles in the Fox musical series Glee and NBC's Smash. Beginning in 2015, she appeared as Dr. Hannah Brody in the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy, and in 2020 she appeared in its spin-off series Station 19. Starting in October 2020, she began voicing the character Millie in all episodes of the adult animated web series Helluva Boss, with the exception of the original pilot, which was later reworked in 2025. Her film credits include 500 Days of Summer and Top Five. In addition to her performing career, Nixon serves as associate director at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy. She has three daughters.