Nixon was born in Manhattan, the only child of Walter Elmer Nixon Jr., a radio journalist from Texas,[5][6][7] and Anne Elizabeth (née Knoll),[8] an actress originally from Chicago.[9][10] She credits her mother with "indoctrinating" her into theatre.[11] She is of English and German descent.[12][13] Her grandparents were Adolph Knoll, Etta Elizabeth Williams, Walter E. Nixon, and Grace Truman McCormack.[14][15][16] Nixon's parents divorced when she was six years old.[9] According to Nixon, her father was often unemployed[9] and her mother was the household's main breadwinner:[10] Nixon's mother worked on the game show To Tell the Truth, coaching the "impostors" who claimed to be the person described by the host.
In 1984, while a freshman at Barnard College, Nixon made theatrical history by simultaneously appearing in two hit Broadway plays directed by Mike Nichols.[18] They were The Real Thing, where she played the daughter of Jeremy Irons and Christine Baranski; and Hurlyburly, where she played a young woman who encounters sleazy Hollywood executives.[26] The two theaters were just two blocks apart and Nixon's roles were both short, so she could run from one to the other.[26] Onscreen, she played the role of Salieri's maid/spy, Lorl, in Amadeus (1984). In 1985, she appeared alongside Jeff Daniels in Lanford Wilson's Lemon Sky at Second Stage Theatre.[27]
She was one of the four regulars on HBO's comedy Sex and the City (1998–2004), as the lawyer Miranda Hobbes.[34] Nixon received three Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (2002, 2003, 2004), winning the award in 2004, for the show's final season.[35]
Nixon next had her first leading role in a feature, playing a video artist who falls in love, despite her best efforts to avoid commitment, with a bisexual actor who just happens to be dating a gay man (her best friend) in Advice from a Caterpillar (2000), as well as starring opposite Scott Bakula in the holiday television movie Papa's Angels (2000). In 2002, she also acted in the indie comedy Igby Goes Down, and her turn in the theatrical production of Clare Boothe Luce's play The Women was captured for PBS' Stage on Screen series.[citation needed]
Post-Sex and the City, Nixon made a guest appearance on ER in 2005, as a mother who undergoes a tricky procedure to lessen the effects of a debilitating stroke. She followed up with a turn as Eleanor Roosevelt for HBO's Warm Springs (2005), which chronicled Franklin Delano Roosevelt's quest for a miracle cure for his polio. Nixon earned an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her performance.[35] In December 2005, she appeared in the Fox TV series House in the episode "Deception", as a patient who suffers a seizure.[citation needed]
In March 2010, Nixon received the Vito Russo Award at the GLAAD Media Awards. The award is presented to an openly LGBT media professional "who has made a significant difference in promoting equality for the LGBT community".[citation needed] It was announced in June 2010 that Nixon would appear in four episodes of the Showtime series The Big C.[39] Nixon appeared in a Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode based on the problems surrounding the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Her character is "Amanda Reese, the high-strung and larger-than-life director behind a problem-plagued Broadway version of Icarus," loosely modeled after Spider-Man director Julie Taymor.[40]
Nixon appeared on Broadway in the revival of The Little Foxes, officially opening on April 19, 2017, at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. She alternated the roles of Regina and Birdie with Laura Linney, winning her second Tony Award for her performance as Birdie.[49]
Nixon is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Nixon is a long-time advocate for public education. She is a spokesperson for New York's Alliance for Quality Education, a public education fairness advocacy organization.[1][51][52] Nixon also has a history of advocacy in support of women's health.[1]
She endorsed Bill de Blasio in the 2013 New York City mayoral election, who went on to win the Democratic nomination and the general election. Nixon campaigned actively for de Blasio, whom she had worked with since the early 2000s when campaigning against Michael Bloomberg's education policies. De Blasio credited Nixon and union leader George Gresham as the two "architects of (his) campaign" in the Democratic primaries, when he defeated the favorite Christine Quinn. After his election, de Blasio appointed Nixon as his representative to The Public Theater.[53]
In the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Nixon endorsed Bernie Sanders before campaigning for him in early February 2020 in Las Vegas. She stated, "In the same terrifying and muscular way that Trump is a force for so much of what is bad in this country, in this world, Bernie has that same kind of muscularity of vision but for good. A candidate who is too beholden to big money and the establishment and just basically doesn't want to rock the boat is never going to be a powerful enough counterbalance to what Donald Trump has to offer. You need someone as vigorous and who is wanting to turn the system upside down."[54]
In 2023, Nixon signed an open letter expressing "serious concerns about editorial bias" in reporting by the New York Times on transgender people. The letter characterized the NYT's coverage as using "an eerily familiar mix of pseudoscience and euphemistic, charged language", and raised concerns regarding the NYT's employment practices regarding trans contributors.[55][56][57]
Nixon was expected to secure the nomination of the Working Families Party of New York during its annual convention in April 2018, thus guaranteeing her a spot on the general election ballot.[61] On April 15, Nixon won 91.5 percent of the vote at the Party's statewide committee meeting after Cuomo withdrew himself from consideration at the last minute. Nixon stated that in the event that she did not also secure the Democratic nomination, she would "confer with the Working Families Party and we will make the decision we think is best".[62]
The endorsement caused a schism in the party, as labor unions, including the Service Employees International Union, and Communications Workers of America, indicated they would not support the party in the election. The withdrawal, it was believed, would significantly hurt the party's finances which, in 2018, were at a level of $1.7 million and supported a statewide staff of about 15 people. The battle received considerable attention since there were concerns that Nixon might drain enough votes from Cuomo in the general election to allow a Republican to be elected (though Cuomo was comfortably leading the polls at the time). Cuomo had vigorously campaigned to get the nomination before withdrawing when it was clear he would not get it.[63][64]
In contrast to Cuomo, Nixon supported the legalization of marijuana. The most important reason, she said, was racial justice. "People across all ethnic and racial lines use marijuana at roughly the same rate, but the arrests for marijuana are 80 percent black and Latino." Nixon said that the revenues from legalization should be prioritized to the communities that had been harmed by them, as a form of "reparations". She said that people in jail on marijuana charges should be released, criminal records for marijuana use should be expunged, and marijuana revenues should be used to help them reenter society.[65][66] However, many black leaders were offended by her use of the term "reparations".[67][68][69][70]
On May 23, 2018, Nixon and other potential Democratic challengers to Cuomo were eliminated from the Democratic party endorsement at the state Democratic Convention after failing to meet the 25% state delegate threshold needed to appear on the ballot.[75] Nixon filed a petition with 65,000 signatures, more than four times the 15,000 required, to force a primary election.[76] The primary was held on September 13.[77] With 93% of precincts reporting, Cuomo received 65% of votes and Nixon got 35%.[78]
On October 5, 2018, the Working Families Party removed Nixon's name from their ticket after deciding to endorse Cuomo and Hochul, thus ensuring that Nixon would not appear on the general election ballot.[79]
In August 2021, Cuomo was forced to resign as governor following allegations of sexual harassment by women who worked in his office.[80] As a result of the scandal, he was stripped of the honorary Emmy given to him for his televised Covid briefings in 2020.[81] After he left office, Nixon tweeted on August 24, 2021: "The difference between me and Andrew Cuomo? Neither of us is governor, but I still have my Emmy(s)."[82]
Israel-Gaza War
Cynthia Nixon supports South Africa's Genocide Convention against Israel. She contributed to a video series, published by the Palestine Festival of Literature, in support of South Africa's motion, accusing Israel of genocide in its war against civilians in Gaza. The ICJ ruled it was plausible that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.[83][84]
Personal life
From 1988 to 2003, Nixon was in a relationship with educator Danny Mozes.[85] They have two children together. In June 2018, Nixon revealed that her older child is transgender.[86][87]
Nixon and her wife, Christine Marinoni (2014)
In 2004, Nixon began dating education activist Christine Marinoni. Nixon and Marinoni became engaged in April 2009,[88] and married in New York City on May 27, 2012, with Nixon wearing a custom-made, pale green dress by Carolina Herrera.[85][89] Marinoni gave birth to a son in 2011.[90]
Regarding her sexual orientation, Nixon remarked in 2007: "I don't really feel I've changed. I'd been with men all my life, and I'd never fallen in love with a woman. But when I did, it didn't seem so strange. I'm just a woman in love with another woman."[91] She identified herself as bisexual in 2012,[92] and as queer starting in 2018.[93] Prior to the legalization of same-sex marriage in Washington state (Marinoni's home state), Nixon had taken a public stand supporting the issue, and hosted a fundraising event in support of Washington Referendum 74.[94]
In October 2006, Nixon was diagnosed with breast cancer during a routine mammography.[95] She initially decided not to go public with her illness because she feared it might hurt her career,[96] but in April 2008, she announced her battle with the disease in an interview with Good Morning America.[95] Since then, Nixon has become a breast cancer activist. She convinced the head of NBC to air her breast cancer special in a prime time program,[96] and became an ambassador for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.[97]
^ abcdWitchel, Alex (January 19, 2012). "Life After 'Sex'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 16, 2017. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
^"Prominent Alumni & Lecturers". Semester at Sea. Ft. Collins, CO: Institute for Shipboard Education, Colorado State University. Archived from the original on February 25, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2020.