Dianne Wiest

Dianne Evelyn Wiest (born March 28, 1948) is an American actress known for her performances across film, television, and theater. She is a two-time Academy Award winner for Best Supporting Actress for her roles in Woody Allen's films Hannah and Her Sisters and Bullets Over Broadway. Over the course of her career, she has also won two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award, alongside receiving additional nominations for her screen work.

Wiest was born in Kansas City, Missouri, to nurse Anne Stewart and Bernard John Wiest, a college dean and former psychiatric social worker for the U.S. Army. Raised alongside her two brothers, Greg and Don, she attended Nurnberg American High School in Germany. Though she initially aimed to become a ballet dancer, she shifted her focus to theater during her senior year. Wiest graduated from the University of Maryland in 1969 with a degree in Arts and Sciences.

After leaving her theater studies at Maryland to tour with a Shakespearean troupe, Wiest built an extensive stage career. She spent four years as a member of the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., performing in plays such as Our Town, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and The Lower Depths, and toured the USSR. She made her Broadway debut in 1971 in Solitaire/Double Solitaire. Her performance in Tina Howe's The Art of Dining earned her an Obie Award, a Theatre World Award, and a Clarence Derwent Award. Over the decades, her stage credits have included Othello, Beyond Therapy, Hedda Gabler, The Seagull, All My Sons, and Samuel Beckett's Happy Days.

Wiest transitioned to screen acting with early roles in It's My Turn, I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can, and Footloose (1984). Her collaborations with Woody Allen brought widespread acclaim; she starred in The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Radio Days (1987), September (1987), and Bullets Over Broadway (1994). Her roles in Hannah and Her Sisters and Bullets Over Broadway earned her two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress, as well as a Golden Globe Award for the latter.

Wiest's film career expanded with roles in The Lost Boys (1987), Bright Lights, Big City (1988), and Ron Howard's Parenthood (1989), which brought her another Oscar nomination. Her filmography also includes Edward Scissorhands (1990), Little Man Tate (1991), The Birdcage (1996), Practical Magic (1998), Dan in Real Life (2007), Synecdoche, New York (2008), Rabbit Hole (2010), Let Them All Talk (2020), and I Care a Lot (2020).

On television, Wiest won a 1997 Primetime Emmy Award for her guest role in Road to Avonlea. She portrayed interim District Attorney Nora Lewin on Law & Order from 2000 to 2002. Her role as therapist Gina Toll in HBO's In Treatment won her a second Emmy Award in 2008. She also appeared in Life in Pieces, Mayor of Kingstown (2021–2023), and Only Murders in the Building. In her personal life, Wiest was in a relationship with talent agent Sam Cohn in the mid-1980s and adopted two daughters, Emily and Lily.