Amy Ryan

Amy Beth Dziewiontkowski (born May 3, 1968), known professionally as Amy Ryan, is an American actress of stage and screen.

A graduate of New York's High School of Performing Arts, she is an Academy Award nominee and two-time Tony Award nominee.

Growing up in the 1970s, Ryan and her sister Laura delivered the Daily News by bike.

At a young age, Ryan attended the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Center in upstate New York.

At 17, she graduated from New York's High School of Performing Arts.

Hired for the national tour of Biloxi Blues right out of high school, Ryan worked steadily off-Broadway for the next decade.

She chose her mother's maiden name as her stage name.

After being voted Best Supporting Actress for Gone Baby Gone by the National Board of Review, as well as the critics circles in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., Ryan's performance was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting role at the 80th Academy Awards.

Ryan began her professional stage career in 1987 and made her Broadway debut in 1993 as a replacement in the original production of Wendy Wasserstein's The Sisters Rosensweig.

Ryan made her off-Broadway debut in the Westside Theatre's 1987 production of A Shayna Maidel, playing the role of Hanna.

The following year she was seen in the Second Stage Theatre Company's revival of The Rimers of Eldritch.

Additional off-Broadway credits include As Bees In Honey Drown, Crimes of the Heart and Saved.

She also worked in regional theater, where she originated roles in new plays by Neil LaBute, Arthur Miller and Neil Simon.

In 1993, she made her first appearance on NBC's Law & Order, appearing in several episodes over the years.

On Broadway she has appeared as Tess in The Sisters Rosensweig, Natasha in the 1997 revival of The Three Sisters, and Peggy in the 2001–2002 revival of The Women.

Following a brief stint playing a runaway on As the World Turns, Ryan was cast in television series such as I'll Fly Away, After roles on ER and Chicago Hope, Ryan became a series regular on The Naked Truth as Téa Leoni's spoiled stepdaughter.

Because of the deletion of the scene where she played Eric Stoltz's wife in Allison Anders's Grace of My Heart, Ryan made her 1999 film debut in Roberta.

She then briefly appeared in You Can Count on Me, which starred Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo, and the mystery/thriller Keane.

She went on to receive two Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play nominations for her performances as Sonya Alexandrovna in Uncle Vanya (2000) and Stella Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (2005).

Her other films include You Can Count on Me (2000), Capote (2005), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), Changeling (2008), Jack Goes Boating (2010), Win Win (2011), Birdman (2014), Bridge of Spies (2015), The Infiltrator (2016), Beautiful Boy (2018), Lost Girls (2020), Worth (2020), and Beau is Afraid (2023).

Ryan was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play twice: in 2000, for her portrayal of Sonya Alexandrovna in Uncle Vanya, and in 2005, for her performance as Stella Kowalski opposite John C. Reilly in A Streetcar Named Desire.

By 2001, director Sidney Lumet cast her in 100 Centre Street playing three different roles (Ellen, Paris and Rebecca).

On television, she played Beadie Russell in HBO's The Wire (2002–2008), Holly Flax in NBC's The Office (2008–2011), Adele Brousse in HBO's In Treatment (2010), and Jan in the Hulu comedy series Only Murders in the Building.

Ryan was born Amy Beth Dziewiontkowski in Flushing, Queens, in New York City, the daughter of Pamela (née Ryan), a nurse, and John Dziewiontkowski, a trucking business owner.

She is of Polish, Irish, and English descent.

From 2003 to 2008 Ryan went on to feature prominently in HBO's crime drama series The Wire, playing Port Authority Officer Beadie Russell.

Albert Brooks chose her to play his wife in Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World in 2005, and 2007 brought both Dan in Real Life and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.

Her role as a star-struck sheriff's wife in Capote earned her positive reviews, but it was playing a hardened welfare mom in Ben Affleck's Gone Baby Gone that finally brought her national attention.

For her breakthrough film role as Helene McCready in the 2007 film Gone Baby Gone she received the Critics' Choice Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award.

Ryan appeared in Changeling (2008), directed by Clint Eastwood, and opposite Matt Damon in Paul Greengrass's Green Zone (2010).

From 2008 to 2011 She appeared for a six-episode arc on The Office as dorky HR rep Holly Flax.

She reprised her role on The Office in seasons 5 and 7.

In September 2010, she completed filming a role in Philip Seymour Hoffman's directorial film debut, Jack Goes Boating, taking over the role of Connie originally played by Beth Cole in the stage version.

Ryan received strong notices for her performance in Tom McCarthy's Win Win the next year, winning Best Supporting Actress awards from multiple regional critics groups.

Ryan joined the cast of HBO's In Treatment for its third season in 2010, playing the therapist of Dr. Paul Weston.

Ryan was a part of the core ensemble of the 2014 Best Picture Academy Award winning film Birdman, sharing in the cast's Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture victory.

In 2015, she starred as Mary Donovan opposite Tom Hanks in the film Bridge of Spies, and reunited with her In Treatment co-star Gabriel Byrne in Louder Than Bombs, the English-language debut of Joachim Trier.

Early the next year, Ryan was cast as Tracy, her first on-screen leading role, in Abundant Acreage Available, a rural family drama from Junebug screenwriter Angus MacLachlan.

Upon the film's premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, Ryan drew universal acclaim for her performance, with The Wrap noting that she "holds the screen no matter what she's doing and who she's with" and Flavorwire raving that Ryan "sounds notes that are quietly dazzling in their complexity."

Variety chief film critic Peter Debruge dubbed the performance a career highlight: