Zoe Kazan

Zoe Swicord Kazan (born September 9, 1983) is an American actress, playwright, and screenwriter.

She made her acting debut in the film Swordswallowers and Thin Men (2003) and later acted in films such as The Savages (2007), Revolutionary Road (2008), and It's Complicated (2009).

After her film debut in 2003 as Samantha in Swordswallowers and Thin Men, Kazan had her first professional stage role in the 2006 off-Broadway revival of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, starring Cynthia Nixon.

She attended Yale University, where she was a member of the Manuscript Society, and graduated in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in theatre.

In 2007, she had a small role in The Savages, starring Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and guest-appeared in an episode of Medium.

She next appeared in the films Fracture and In the Valley of Elah.

That fall, she returned to the stage in a The New Group production of 100 Saints You Should Know for which she received a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play nomination.

That same year she acted in Jonathan Marc Sherman's Things We Want alongside Paul Dano and Peter Dinklage directed by Ethan Hawke.

Kazan made her Broadway debut in the revival of the William Inge play Come Back, Little Sheba (2008).

She has since acted in the Anton Chekov revival of The Seagull (2008), Martin McDonagh's A Behanding in Spokane (2010), and the revival of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt: A Parable (2024).

Also a playwright, she wrote Absalom (2008), We Live Here (2011), Trudy and Max in Love (2014), and After the Blast (2017).

Kazan was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of screenwriter Nicholas Kazan and Robin Swicord.

Her paternal grandparents were film and theatre director Elia Kazan and playwright Molly Kazan (née Thacher).

Elia was an Anatolian-Greek emigrant from Istanbul, and Molly was a Mayflower descendant.

The family surname was originally Kazantzoglou (Greek: Καζαντζόγλου).

Kazan was educated at the private Wildwood School, Windward School, and at the Marlborough School in Hancock Park, Los Angeles.

In January 2008, Kazan made her Broadway debut opposite S. Epatha Merkerson and Kevin Anderson in a revival of William Inge's Come Back, Little Sheba.

Ben Brantley of The New York Times called her performance "first-rate", adding, "Ms. Kazan is terrific in conveying the character's self-consciousness."

In the fall, she appeared on stage as Masha in a Broadway revival of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull (2008) opposite Kristin Scott Thomas, Carey Mulligan, and Peter Sarsgaard.

That year she also had roles as Gal Employee in the drama August with Josh Hartnett, Gretta Adler in the period drama Me and Orson Welles with Zac Efron and Maureen Grube in the romantic drama Revolutionary Road starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Kazan is also a playwright.

In 2009, her play Absalom premiered at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Kentucky.

The play, about a father's tense relationships with his children, had been extensively read and workshopped since Kazan's junior year at Yale.

She ended the year playing Meryl Streep's daughter in the Nancy Meyers romantic comedy It's Complicated also starring Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.

She also had lead roles in the movies I Hate Valentine's Day and The Exploding Girl, both in 2009.

She starred in Happythankyoumoreplease (2010), Meek's Cutoff (2010), Ruby Sparks (2012), What If (2013), The Big Sick (2017), The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018), and She Said (2021).

Her other television roles include in the HBO comedy series Bored to Death (2010), the HBO drama series The Deuce (2017–2019), the HBO miniseries The Plot Against America (2020), and the Netflix miniseries Clickbait (2021).

She returned to Broadway acting in a production of Martin McDonagh's play A Behanding in Spokane with Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell until June 6, 2010.

In 2010, she had a main role in the comedy-drama Happy. Thank You. More. Please. as Mary Catherine, the cousin of Josh Radnor's character.

She also starred as Millie Gately in Kelly Reichardt's independent Western drama Meek's Cutoff (2010) acting alongside Michelle Williams and Paul Dano.

In the fall, Kazan played Harper Pitt in Signature Theatre Company's 20th-anniversary production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America.

On the small screen, she appeared in four episodes of HBO's Bored to Death as Nina, the love interest of a fictionalized Jonathan Ames, played by Jason Schwartzman.

Among the ensemble cast was Amy Irving, and the director was 2010 Obie Award winner Sam Gold.

Her play We Live Here, about a dysfunctional family, received its world premiere production from October 12 to November 6, 2011, at the off-Broadway Manhattan Theater Club in New York City.

Kazan's starred in the title role of Ruby Sparks (2012), a comedy-romance film directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and starring Kazan, Paul Dano, Chris Messina, Antonio Banderas, Annette Bening, Deborah Ann Woll and Steve Coogan.

Kazan wrote the film and served as its executive producer.

Eric Kohn of IndieWire praised the film declaring it a "startlingly insightful and whimsical romance".

She received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay.

She acted in the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge (2014), for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie.

She also wrote Ruby Sparks and co-wrote Wildlife (2018) with her partner Paul Dano.