Friends Speaker Series: Christine Ebersole

For over 30 years, two-time Tony Award-winning actress Christine Ebersole has captivated audiences on the Broadway stage, and with television series and specials, films, concert appearances, and recordings.
Ebersole was raised in Winnetka, Illinois, and was the youngest of four children. At New Trier High School, Christine played violin in the school orchestra and discovered her singing ability in a summer drama class. After high school, she briefly attended MacMurray College in Jacksonville, IL, before graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York in 1975.
One of Ebersole’s first roles was as an understudy in the Broadway musical On the Twentieth Century, followed by her turn as Ado Annie in Oklahoma. She then went on to star with Richard Burton in the 1980 revival of Camelot.
From there, Ebersole launched her early television career, landing roles on Ryan’s Hope, One Life to Live , and as part of the cast of the 1981-1982 season of Saturday Night Live. She would continue her small-screen success with roles on such hit television series as The Cavanaughs, Murphy Brown, Empty Nest, Rachel Gunn, R.N., Just Shoot Me, Will & Grace, Crossing Jordan, Boston Legal, Royal Pains, Ugly Betty, Sullivan and Son, American Horror Story: Coven, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Search Party. Ebersole also landed a number of roles in high-profile films such as Tootsie, Amadeus, Ghost Dad, Richie Rich, Black Sheep, True Crime, and The Wolf of Wall Street.
Ebersole then shifted her focus back to Broadway, where she won her first Tony Award for her performance as Dorothy Brock in the 2001 revival, 42nd Street. She was also featured in The Best Man, Steel Magnolias, Blithe Spirit, War Paint, and Dinner at Eight, for which she received both Tony and Outer Critics Circle nominations.
Ebersole would go on to the role of a lifetime, playing the dual roles of “Big Edie” Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and “Little Edie” Edith Bouvier Beale in the smash hit Grey Gardens, for which she won her second Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. Acclaimed by critics and audiences alike, the show was nominated for ten Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and its CD was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Christine continues to appear in numerous concert halls and cabaret venues throughout the country, including performances at Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, The Kennedy Center, Boston Symphony Hall, Feinstein’s, and Cafe Carlyle. Ebersole, a highly awarded recording artist, has also released several CDs, including Christine Ebersole: Strings Attached in 2013.