Kathleen Chalfant


Kathleen Ann Chalfant is an American actress. She has appeared in many stage plays, both on Broadway and Off-Broadway, as well as making guest appearances on television series, including the Law & Order franchise.

Early life

Chalfant was born Kathleen Ann Bishop in San Francisco, California, and was raised in her parents' boarding house in Oakland. Her father, William Bishop, was an officer in the Coast Guard. She studied acting in New York with Wynn Handman, who was a protégé of Sanford Meisner, and with Alessandro Fersen in Rome.

Career

Chalfant worked as a Production Coordinator at Playwrights Horizons in the mid-1970s, beginning with Demons: A Possession by Robert Karmon. She made her Off-Broadway acting debut in Cowboy Pictures in June 1974. She has since appeared in over three dozen Off-Broadway productions.
Chalfant was nominated for her official Broadway debut role at the 1993 Tony Awards for Best Actress in Tony Kushner's Angels in America: Millennium Approaches. She earned the Outer Circle Critics, Drama Desk, Obie and Lucille Lortel awards for her performance as Vivian Bearing in Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit in 1998; she shaved her head for the role. During her work with Wit, she incorporated her experiences dealing with terminal cancer of her half-brother, Alan Palmer, who died in 1998.
For her 2003 performance in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads, Chalfant won a second Obie award. In 2009, Chalfant performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film utilizing dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. In 2015, she appeared in the Women's Project Theater production of Dear Elizabeth by Sarah Ruhl and as Rose Kennedy in the Nora's Playhouse production of Rose by Laurence Leamer.
Chalfant has played recurring roles in a number of television series including House of Cards, Law & Order, Rescue Me, and The Guardian. Her roles in feature films have included Isn't It Delicious and Kinsey. Chalfant recently played Margaret Butler in The Affair on Showtime.
She was presented with the 2018 Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 2018, Chalfant read T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets at the Bard SummerScape Festival as part of a new performance with choreography by Pam Tanowitz, music by Kaija Saariaho, and images by Brice Marden.
Chalfant played the lead role in the 2024 film Familiar Touch, for which she won the Orizzonti Award for Best Actress and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress.

Personal life

In 1966, Chalfant married Henry Chalfant, a photographer and documentary filmmaker. They have a son, David Chalfant, who was the bass player for the folk-rock band The Nields, and a daughter, Andromache, a set designer in New York.

Activism

Chalfant has spoken about the role of art and artists in advocating for civil rights and social justice, and "theater as a platform for social change."
She has been hosted by the Center for Constitutional Rights as part of the Guantanamo Lawyers Panel, and was among a group of artists endorsing a cultural boycott of Israel as part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign to advocate for Palestinian rights.
In September 2025, she signed an open pledge with Film Workers for Palestine pledging not to work with Israeli film institutions "that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people."

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

YearShowRoleVenue
1974Cowboy Picturesn/aPlaywrights Horizons
1975The Coroner's Plotn/aPlaywrights Horizons
1975Mississippi Moonshinen/aPlaywrights Horizons
1976Paradisen/aPlaywrights Horizons
1977Jules Feiffer's Hold Me!n/aWestside Theatre
1978Fefu and Her Friendsn/a American Place Theatre
1980Killings on the Last Timen/aAmerican Place Theatre
1982Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You/The Actor's NightmareSister Mary Ignatius/Sarah Siddons Westside Theatre
1988Just Say NoMrs. PotentateWPA Theatre
1989The Investigation of the Murder in El SalvadorLady AitkinPerry Street Theater
1990The CrucibleMrs. Ann PutnamUnion Square Theater
1990M. ButterflyHelga Eugene O'Neill Theatre
1992The PartyWomenVineyard Theater
1993Angels in America: Millennium ApproachesRabbi Chemelwitz, Henry, Hannah Pitt, Ethel RosenbergWalter Kerr Theatre
1993Angels in America: PerestroikaPrelapsarianov, Hannah Pitt, Henry, Ethel Rosenberg, Council of Principalities, Rabbi ChemelwitzWalter Kerr Theatre
1995Iphigenia and Other DaughtersClytemnestraEast 13th Street Theatre/Classic Stage Company
1995Twelve DreamsJennyMitzi E. Newhouse Theater
1995EndgameClovEast 13th Street Theatre/Classic Stage Company
1995Racing DemonHeather EspyVivian Beaumont Theatre
1996Henry VMistress Quickly/Queen IsabelDelacorte Theatre
1996Nine ArmeniansNon/MarieNew York City Center-Stage I
1998Phaedra in Deliriumn/aEast 13th Street Theatre/Classic Stage Company
1998WitVivian Bearing, Ph.D.MCC Theater
1998WitVivian Bearing, Ph.D.Union Square Theatre
1999The Vagina Monologuesn/aWestside Theatre
1999True History and Real Adventuresn/aVineyard Theatre
2003Talking HeadsSusan Minetta Lane Theatre
2003Savannah BayMadeleineEast 13th Street Theatre/Classic Stage Company
2003The Last LetterAnna SemyonovaLucille Lortel Theatre
2004Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend FreedomGareth PeirceTheatres at 45 Bleecker/Bleecker Street Theatre
2004Five By TennAnna/Vera Cartwright/Frieda/OneNew York City Center-Stage II
2006an oak treeFatherBarrow Street Theatre
2006Great ExpectationsMiss HavishamLucille Lortel Theatre
2007Spalding Gray: Stories Left to TellLoveMinetta Lane Theatre
2007A Hard Heartn/aHarold Clurman Theatre
2008Dead Man's Cell PhoneMrs. GottliebPlaywrights Horizons
2009The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the ScripturesBenedicta Immacolata Marcantonio Guthrie Theater
2010Family WeekLenaLucille Lortel Theatre
2012Red Dog HowlsRose AfratianNew York Theatre Workshop
2013Somewhere FunEvelyn ArmstrongVineyard Theatre
2014Tales From Red ViennaEdda SchmidtNew York City Center- Stage I
2014A Walk in the WoodsIrina BotvinnikClurman Theater
2015Dear ElizabethElizabethMcGinn-Cazale Theatre
2015RoseRose KennedyClurman Theater
2017For Peter Pan on Her 70th BirthdayAnnPlaywrights Horizons
2018St. Vincent's Project: Novenas for a HospitalSister Elizabeth Ann SetonRattlestick Playwrights Theatre
2021Four QuartetsNarratorBrooklyn Academy of Music
2024Here There Are BlueberriesJudy Cohen and othersNew York Theatre Workshop
2025Pen PalsBernie / MagsDR2 Theatre

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryWorkResult
1993Drama Desk AwardsOutstanding Featured Actress in a PlayAngels in America: Millennium Approachesrowspan=3 Nomitated
1993Tony AwardsBest Featured Actress in a PlayAngels in America: Millennium Approaches-
1994Drama Desk AwardsOutstanding Actress in a PlayAngels in America: Perestroika-
1996Actors' Equity AssociationJoe A. Callaway AwardHenry VWon
1997Drama Desk AwardsOutstanding Featured Actress in a PlayNine ArmeniansNomitated
1999Outer Critics Circle AwardsOutstanding Actress in a PlayWitrowspan=7 Won
1999Obie AwardsOutstanding PerformanceWit-
1999Drama League AwardsDistinguished PerformanceWit-
1999Drama Desk AwardsOutstanding Actress in a PlayWit-
1999Lucille Lortel AwardsOutstanding ActressWit-
2003Obie AwardsBest PerformanceTalking Heads-
2004Lucille Lortel AwardsEdith Oliver Award for Sustained Excellence-
2015Drama Desk AwardsOutstanding Actress in a PlayA Walk in the Woodsrowspan=2 Nomitated
2016Drama Desk AwardsOutstanding Solo PerformanceRose-
2024Venice Film FestivalOrizzonti Award for Best ActressFamiliar Touchrowspan=2 Won
2025National Society of Film CriticsBest ActressFamiliar Touch-