Actress and activist Cynthia Nixon, born in Manhattan in 1966, mounted a direct challenge to New York Democratic politics in 2018, running for governor on the Working Families Party line against incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo. She lost the Sept. 13, 2018 primary decisively—Cuomo took 66 percent to her 34 percent—but her campaign signaled a willingness to contest established party power from the left.
Nixon's political engagement has centered on LGBT rights advocacy. She met her wife at a gay rights rally in 2002 and announced her engagement at a New York same-sex marriage rally in 2009. The Human Rights Campaign recognized her with its Visibility Award in 2018.
Her performing career began on Broadway in 1980 with a revival of "The Philadelphia Story." She won Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play for "Rabbit Hole" (2006) and Best Featured Actress in a Play for "The Little Foxes" (2017). Other Broadway credits include "The Real Thing" and "Hurlyburly" (both 1983), "Indiscretions" (1995), "The Women" (2001), and "Wit" (2012).
On screen, Nixon won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2008 for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." She is widely recognized for playing Miranda Hobbes in HBO's "Sex and the City" (1998–2004) and its films (2008, 2010), reprising the role for "And Just Like That." (2021–2025). She currently appears in HBO's "The Gilded Age," which began in 2022.
Nixon has portrayed historical figures including Eleanor Roosevelt in "Warm Springs" (2005), Michele Davis in "Too Big to Fail" (2011), and Nancy Reagan in "Killing Reagan" (2016). She also won a Grammy Award in 2009 for Best Spoken Word Album for "An Inconvenient Truth."
