Kyra Sedgwick

Kyra Minturn Sedgwick is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her starring role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on the crime drama series The Closer, which aired from 2005 to 2012. Over her career, she has performed in numerous feature films, television movies, and series, as well as taking on roles as a producer and director.

Sedgwick was born in New York City on August 19, 1965, to Patricia, a speech teacher and educational/family therapist, and Henry Dwight Sedgwick V, a venture capitalist. Her family background includes deep literary and historical connections; she is a descendant of Declaration of Independence signatory William Ellery and Atlantic Monthly editor Ellery Sedgwick. Her family also includes actor Robert Sedgwick, jazz guitarist Mike Stern, actress Edie Sedgwick, and several musical and acting relatives. Raised in New York City, Sedgwick graduated from Friends Seminary and attended Sarah Lawrence College before transferring to the University of Southern California, where she earned a theater degree.

Sedgwick obtained her first acting job in 1982 on the soap opera Another World. She appeared in the TV film Lemon Sky in 1988 and Oliver Stone's film Born on the Fourth of July in 1989. In 1992, she starred as a Jewish immigrant coming to terms with her ethnicity in the Emmy Award–winning TV film Miss Rose White, and appeared in Cameron Crowe's Singles. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, her film work included Heart and Souls (1993), Something to Talk About (1995), Phenomenon (1996), Critical Care (1997), Secondhand Lions (2003), The Game Plan (2007), The Possession (2012), and The Edge of Seventeen (2016).

Her most prominent role came in 2005 when she was cast as Brenda Leigh Johnson in TNT's The Closer. Sedgwick starred in the series for seven seasons until its conclusion in 2012, a decision she made herself. For her performance, she won a Golden Globe Award in 2007 and a Primetime Emmy Award in 2010, alongside multiple Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. Following the end of the show, TNT launched the sequel series Major Crimes.

Sedgwick expanded into producing and directing later in her career. She served as an executive producer on the 2015 TNT series Proof. In 2017, she made her directorial debut with the Lifetime television film Story of a Girl. Her later acting television roles include recurring appearances as Deputy Chief Madeline Wuntch on the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the lead role of Jean Raines in the ABC sitcom Call Your Mother, and the role of Aunt Julia in season two of The Summer I Turned Pretty in 2023.

Sedgwick married actor Kevin Bacon in September 1988 after meeting on the set of Lemon Sky. The couple has two children, Travis and Sosie Bacon, and they share their time between New York City and a farm in Connecticut. Sedgwick has frequently co-starred with Bacon in film projects, including Pyrates, The Woodsman, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, and The Best You Can. Her achievements have been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2009, the Copper Wing Tribute Award in 2005, the Society of Camera Operators' President's Award in 2013, and the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award in 2017.