Debra Messing (Actor)

Debra Messing at a photocall for Woody Allen's film Hollywood Ending. (Photo: Frank Micelott / Image Direct / Getty Images)

About Debra Messing

A vivacious redhead with a knack for verbal and physical comedy, Debra Messing was a Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning actress who dominated the sitcom scene for eight years as lovelorn interior designer Grace Adler on “Will and Grace” (ABC). It was during this masterful run as the ditzy Adler that Messing received the ultimate compliment for any comedienne – an oft-cited comparison to Lucille Ball. During and after the show’s run, Messing also found time to appear in the feature films “Hollywood Ending” (2002) and “The Wedding Date,” as well as the popular USA summer miniseries, “The Starter Wife” (2007) – a role which earned her another Emmy nomination.

Born Debra Lynn Messing in Brooklyn, NY on Aug. 15, 1968, Messing’s parents recognized her preoccupation with acting and singing when, as a child, she put on performances in their East Greenwich, RI home for family and visitors. The Messings encouraged their daughter to pursue a career in the arts, sending her to numerous performing arts camps during her adolescence. Following a high school tenure filled with numerous turns in musical and dramatic productions – with occasional moments of anti-Semitism thrown in, which the undaunted Messing used to strengthen her personality and resolve – she attended Brandeis University in Massachusetts. During her junior year, she also studied theater at the British European Studio Group, a prestigious program based in London. She graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis in 1990 with a Bachelor’s degree in Theater Arts, before being accepted into NYU’s exclusive Graduate Acting Program, which earned her a Master’s degree in Fine Arts.

Messing gained her earliest notices in a workshop production of Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America: Perestroika” in 1993, later appearing in New York productions of plays by John Patrick Shanley and Paul Rudnick. That same year, she also played Dana Abandando, the cold-hearted, man-hungry sister of Gail O’Grady’s character in three episodes of “NYPD Blue” (ABC, 1993-2005). Her movie debut, as Keanu Reeves’ war bride in Alfonso Arau’s World War II fantasy, “A Walk in the Clouds,” came in 1995, as did her first big break – her network series debut in “Ned and Stacey” (Fox, 1995-97). While the series was not long for this world, it would hone her comic chops and make network execs sit up and take notice.

As a liberal reporter who must pretend to be married to cantankerous conservative adman Thomas Haden Church, Messing earned solid reviews for her comic skills – and much admiration from everyone for holding her own against that powerhouse of snide, Haden Church. By the end of the series’ run in 1997, Messing was working regularly in film and on television. She had a two-episode turn – including the much-loved “The Yada Yada” episode – as a girlfriend of Jerry Seinfeld on “Seinfeld” (NBC, 1989-1998), and appeared as the female lead in the woeful big-screen adaptation of “McHale’s Navy” (1997) with Tom Arnold.

Messing turned down an opportunity for another network series in 1997, opting instead to appear in Donald Marguiles’ play “Collected Stories” in New York. Instead, she starred as a scientist who discovers a dangerous alternate form of human life in the TV movie “Prey;” its ratings were significant enough to warrant a series, which she also joined, but the show was pulled from the schedule after just 13 episodes. The following year, after netting a small role in Woody Allen’s film, “Celebrity” (1998), she was cast as Grace Adler, a successful, straight Jewish woman whose best friend was gay man, Will Truman (Eric McCormack) on “Will and Grace.”

With the initially controversial show beginning its long but steady ascent from cult hit and favorite among gay viewers to network powerhouse series, Messing proved she was no fluke in the laugh-getting department – even in a series which boasted two of the most hysterically outlandish supporting stars in Sean Hayes’ flamboyant Jack McFarland and Megan Mullally’s pill-popping Karen Walker. Messing’s convoluted onscreen romances with guest stars Woody Harrelson, Edward Burns and Harry Connick, Jr. – whom Grace would marry in 2002 – as well as her hopelessly co-dependant relationship with her “main gay” Will, endeared her to the show’s heterosexual female audience contingent. She also encouraged the writers to utilize Grace’s Jewish heritage for storylines; even to overturn Jewish stereotypes for laughs. No hypocrite, Messing was also an avid supporter of gay causes throughout the series’ run and beyond.

Messing underwent some considerable high points in her life and career during her show’s network run. She married her graduate school sweetheart, actor-writer Daniel Zelman, in 2000. She would also give birth to their son, Roman, in 2004 – a pregnancy which led to some memorably surreal moments on the series, as the increasing size of Messing’s belly was never quite addressed or explained; often blatantly. She also netted a staggering amount of nominations, including six Golden Globe nods, five Emmy nominations, and six Screen Actors Guild noms; taking home trophies for the latter two in 2003 and 2001, respectively.

Most importantly, the success of the show allowed Messing to branch out and work in other projects in film and on television – though the roles rarely made good use of her talents. She was underutilized as the prostitute Mary Magdalene in the 1999 TV production of “Jesus” (1999), and had little to do as Richard Gere’s ill-fated wife in “The Mothman Prophecies” (2002) or as Ben Stiller’s unfaithful new bride in “Along Came Polly” (2004). She had more exposure as Woody Allen’s scatterbrained live-in love in his glum comedy “Hollywood Ending” (2004), and lent her voice to an animated cat and love interest to “Garfield” (2005). Messing’s first top billing in a feature came the following year with “The Wedding Date” (2005), a cute but largely joyless comedy about a young woman who hires a male escort to be her date at her sister’s wedding. Messing handled the romance and the laughs with typical skill, but the picture itself gave her little to work with.

As “Will and Grace” drew to a close, Messing continued to dabble in side projects, appearing as a celebrity judge on the second season finale of “Project Runway” (Bravo, 2005- ) in 2006 and lent her voice to the park ranger who shelters a pampered bear (Martin Lawrence) in the likable animated feature, “Open Season” (2007). That same year, she turned up in Curtis Hanson’s much-delayed poker drama “Lucky You” (2007), before scoring her biggest post-“Grace” hit to date in “The Starter Wife” (2007), based on the novel by Gigi Levangie Grazer. As Molly Kagan, a 41-year-old wife and mother who suddenly finds herself single and alone after her film executive husband leaves her for a younger woman, Messing provided the blend of humor and pathos that earned her a devoted fan base during the “Grace” years, bringing her another Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Performer.

After much speculation as to who would make the cut, Messing joined a powerhouse cast that included Candice Bergen, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Meg Ryan for Diane English’s film adaptation of Claire Booth Luce’s biting Depression-era play, “The Women” (2008).

Notes

"My mom's philosophy has always been just do what makes you happy, and when it doesn't make you happy anymore, you don't do it anymore. Hence her careers." - Messing quoted in Us, January 1999

According to Messing, "Ned & Stacey" executive producer Michael J. Wiethorn told her: "You are totally wrong for this. You're too wholesome. [Stacey's] this neurotic Jew from New York." To which Messing replied: "Hello, hello, hello! Neurotic Jew from New York sitting right here! Just give me a shot. Let me show you what I think you want." - Messing to Venice, April 1997