Amy Brenneman

In 2005, Amy Brenneman concluded her final season as star, producer and co-creator of the smash hit CBS drama series Judging Amy. Her role as ‘Judge Amy Gray’ has garnered her two TV Guide Awards, three Golden Globe Award nominations, three Emmy Award nominations and a People’s Choice Award nomination, as well as her nomination for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series.

Brenneman’s film credits include roles in Michael Mann’s Heat opposite Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, the Universal thriller Daylight starring opposite Sylvester Stallone, and Neil LaBute’s Your Friends And Neighbors opposite Jason Patric and Ben Stiller. In addition, she starred in the independent film Nevada with Gabrielle Anwar Angus MacFayden and Kathy Najimy; The Suburbans opposite Ben Stiller and Robert Loggia; Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her, opposite Glenn Close, Cameron Diaz, Calista Flockhart, Kathy Baker, and Holly Hunter; and was last be seen in the independent feature Off the Map, opposite Joan Allen and Sam Elliott.

Other film credits include Fear opposite Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg, Steven Spielberg’s Casper, Twentieth Century Fox’s romantic comedy Bye Bye Love and October Films’ Lesser Prophets opposite Scott Glenn, Jimmy Smits and Elizabeth Perkins.

America first took notice of Brenneman with her Emmy Awardnominated performance in NYPD Blue in the role of ‘Janice Licalsi’. She continued her role on the hit television series for a year as a recurring regular, which again earned her an Emmy nomination, allowing her the time to do feature film work. She was also a series regular on the CBS critically acclaimed series, Middle Ages.

Born in New London, Connecticut and raised in the Hartford suburb of Glastonbury, Brenneman stems from a close-knit, traditional family. She enrolled in Harvard University, where, during her freshman year, Brenneman teamed up with a director, a set designer, a composer and a couple of actors to form the Cornerstone Theater Company. This unique company of professional actors took on the task of customizing the classics and taking them to the back roads of America. With each production they would integrate professional actors with local townspeople in some of the most treasured classics such as “Romeo and Juliet,” “The Winter’s Tale,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Three Sisters,” and “Our Town” to name just a few. Consuming over five years of her life, Brenneman is very proud of her hard work with the company.

Brenneman’s college experience also included a semester abroad in Nepal where she studied sacred dances with an indigenous priest. In doing so she became one of only two or three westerners to learn the dances. She also found time to live in Paris for 7 months where she earned her living as an au pair for two autistic children.

Upon completion of her studies at Harvard, Brenneman continued her work with Cornerstone and in 1990 moved to New York to take a shot at the New York Theater scene. She nabbed juicy roles in “The Learned Ladies,” opposite Jean Stapleton at the CSC Repertory, Mac Wellman’s “Sincerity Forever” at the BACA Downtown, and “The Video Store Owner’s Significant Other.” Additionally Amy has performed at the Yale Repertory Company in the role of ‘St. Joan’ in Bertolt Brecht’s “St. Joan of the Stockyards” and starred in the Lincoln Center production of “God’s Heart,” directed by Joe Montello.

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