Patricia Arquette

Patricia Arquette is an American actress born on April 8, 1968, in Chicago, Illinois. Known for her performances across film and television, she has received numerous accolades throughout her career, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Raised in a family connected to the arts, Arquette is the daughter of actor and puppeteer Lewis Arquette and therapist Brenda Olivia "Mardi" Nowak. Her paternal grandfather was comedian Cliff Arquette, and her siblings—Rosanna, Richmond, Alexis, and David—all became actors. Her family lived in Chicago, on a commune in Bentonville, Virginia, and in Los Angeles, California. At age 14, Arquette left home to live with her sister Rosanna in Los Angeles, where she eventually chose to pursue acting after initially considering a career as a midwife.

Arquette made her feature film debut in 1987 as Kristen Parker in the fantasy slasher A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, while also appearing in the television film Daddy and the movie Pretty Smart. After starring in Wildflower (1992), which earned her a CableACE Award, she gained significant recognition for her role as Alabama Whitman in True Romance (1993). Throughout the mid-1990s, she starred in films such as Ed Wood (1994), Beyond Rangoon (1995), Flirting with Disaster (1996), The Secret Agent (1996), and Infinity (1996).

In 1997, Arquette starred in dual roles in David Lynch's psychological thriller Lost Highway and appeared in the horror film Nightwatch. Her film work continued with Goodbye Lover (1998), The Hi-Lo Country (1998), Stigmata (1999), and Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead (1999). During the early 2000s, her credits included Little Nicky (2000), Human Nature (2001), The Badge (2002), Deeper than Deep (2003), the box-office success Holes (2003), and Tiptoes.

In 2005, Arquette transitioned to television by starring as Allison DuBois in the supernatural drama series Medium (2005–2011), winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2005. Concurrently, from 2002 until 2014, she filmed Richard Linklater's coming-of-age drama Boyhood. Her portrayal of single mother Olivia Evans gained universal critical acclaim and earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. During this period, she also appeared in Fast Food Nation (2006), Girl in Progress (2012), and Boardwalk Empire (2013).

Arquette maintained a prominent television presence in subsequent years, starring in the miniseries Escape at Dannemora (2018) and as Dee Dee Blanchard in The Act (2019). Both roles won her Golden Globe Awards, and her performance in The Act earned her a second Primetime Emmy Award. Beginning in 2022, she joined the cast of the Apple TV thriller series Severance as Harmony Cobel, receiving two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for the role.