Reed Birney (born September 11, 1954) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

actor. Birney is known for his performances on stage and screen often acting on and off

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

. Birney gained acclaim in 2016 for his role in '' The Humans'' winning the

Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play The Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play is an honor presented at the Tony Awards, a ceremony established in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, to actors for quality supporting roles in a Broadway play. Honors ...

. He was also nominated previously in the same category for his performance in ''

Casa Valentina ''Casa Valentina'' is a play written by Harvey Fierstein which premiered on Broadway in April 2014 and opened in London in September 2015. It tells the story of men who spend weekends at a resort in the Catskill mountains, dressed as women. Back ...

'' in 2014. He starred in the films ''

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different ele ...

'' (2021), and '' The Menu'' (2022). He's also known for his recurring roles in ''

Gossip Girl ''Gossip Girl'' is an American teen drama television series based on the novel series of the same name written by Cecily von Ziegesar. The series, developed for television by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, ran on The CW network for six sea ...

'' (2007-2009), ''

House of Cards A house of cards (also known as a card tower or card castle) is a structure created by stacking playing cards on top of each other, often in the shape of a pyramid. "House of cards" is also an expression that dates back to 1645 meaning a structu ...

'' (2013-2017), ''

The Blacklist ''The Blacklist'' is an American crime thriller television series that premiered on NBC on September 23, 2013. The show follows Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader), a former U.S. Navy officer turned high-profile criminal who voluntarily s ...

'' (2014-2015), and ''

Home Before Dark ''Home Before Dark'' is the twenty-seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Neil Diamond. Released on May 5, 2008, it was the artist's second album for American Recordings. ''Home Before Dark'' received generally positive reviews fr ...

'' (2021-2022). He's also acted in ''

The Americans ''The Americans'' is an American period spy drama television series created by Joe Weisberg that aired on the FX television network for six seasons from January 30, 2013, to May 30, 2018. Weisberg and Joel Fields also serve as showrunners a ...

'', ''

The Handmaid's Tale ''The Handmaid's Tale'' is a futuristic dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and published in 1985. It is set in a near-future New England in a patriarchal, totalitarian theonomic state known as the Republic of Gilead, which ...

'', and ''

Succession Succession is the act or process of following in order or sequence. Governance and politics *Order of succession, in politics, the ascension to power by one ruler, official, or monarch after the death, resignation, or removal from office of ...

''.

Career

Birney attended the

Boston University College of Fine Arts The Boston University College of Fine Arts (CFA) at Boston University consists of the School of Music, the School of Theatre, and the School of Visual Arts. Each school offers degrees in the performing and visual arts at the undergraduate and grad ...

for two years. After moving to New York City, he attended classes sponsored by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Birney appeared Off-Broadway at

Playwrights Horizons Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work. Under the ...

in 1976 in '' Gemini'' by Albert Innaurato. He has appeared in many plays Off-Broadway since, including '' Bug'' (2004) and '' Circle Mirror Transformation'' (2009). He has performed on Broadway in ''

'' (2014) and '' The Humans''. He appeared in the

Annie Baker Annie Baker (born April 1981) is an American playwright and teacher who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her play ''The Flick.'' Among her works are the Shirley, Vermont plays, which take place in the fictional town of Shirley: ''Circle Mirror Tr ...

adaptation of ''

Uncle Vanya ''Uncle Vanya'' ( rus, Дя́дя Ва́ня, r=Dyádya Ványa, p=ˈdʲædʲə ˈvanʲə) is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1898, and was first produced in 1899 by the Moscow Art Theatre under the di ...

'' at the Soho Rep in 2012. Charles Isherwood in his review for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote: "The indispensable Reed Birney is as vitally moving a Vanya as I’ve yet to see..." He was nominated for the Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Actor in a Play, for ''Uncle Vanya''. He won the 2016

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual c ...

, Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play, for ''The Humans''; the 2014

Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. F ...

, Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play, for ''Casa Valentina''; and the 2010

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the ...

, Performance, for ''Circle Mirror Transformation''. He received a Special Drama Desk Award in 2011, honoring his career."Reed Birney"
columbia.edu, accessed June 13, 2016"Reed Birney Broadway"
Playbill, accessed June 13, 2016 He appeared off-Broadway in the play by Tracy Letts, ''

Man from Nebraska ''Man From Nebraska'' is a play by American playwright Tracy Letts, which premiered in 2003 in Chicago. ''Man From Nebraska'' is about a man's loss of faith and his journey to regain it. Productions The play had its world premiere at Steppenwolf ...

'', which opened in January 2017 in previews at the

Second Stage Theatre Second Stage Theater is a theater company founded in 1979 by Robyn Goodman and Carole Rothman and located in Manhattan, New York City. It produces both new plays and revivals of contemporary American plays by new playwrights and established wri ...

. From May to October 2017, he starred as O'Brien in the Broadway production of ''

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

'' at the

Hudson Theatre The Hudson Theatre is a Broadway theater at 139–141 West 44th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. One of the oldest surviving Broadway venues, the Hudson was built ...

. His television performances include Matthew Lester in '' Kane & Abel'', Mr. Prescott on ''

'', Donald Blythe on the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

series ''

'',"'House of Cards’ Star Reed Birney Endures ‘Quiet Desperation’ in ‘Mad Women’"
madeinhollywood.tv, July 22, 2015 Tom Connolly in ''

'' and Dr. Adamson on ''

Titans In Greek mythology, the Titans ( grc, οἱ Τῑτᾶνες, ''hoi Tītânes'', , ''ho Tītân'') were the pre-Olympian gods. According to the ''Theogony'' of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (Sky) and Gai ...

''. Recently he has appeared in Hulu's

adaptation In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...

of Margaret Atwood's ''

'' as Lieutenant Stans. His movie roles included Louie in '' Four Friends'' (1981), the Merchant Prince in ''

A Perfect Murder ''A Perfect Murder'' is a 1998 American crime thriller film directed by Andrew Davis and starring Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Viggo Mortensen. It is a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film '' Dial M for Murder'', though the characters ...

'' (1998), Governor Willis in ''

Morning Glory Morning glory (also written as morning-glory) is the common name for over 1,000 species of flowering plants in the family Convolvulaceae, whose current taxonomy and systematics are in flux. Morning glory species belong to many genera, some of ...

'' (2010), J. Whitman in ''

The 40-Year-Old Version ''The Forty-Year-Old Version'' is a 2020 American comedy-drama film written, directed, and produced by Radha Blank, in her feature directorial debut. It stars Blank, Peter Kim, Oswin Benjamin, and Reed Birney. Loosely based on Blank's own lif ...

'', Pa in '' The Hunt'' (both 2020), Peter Bloom in '' Strawberry Mansion'', and Richard in ''

'' (both 2021). Birney is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Personal life

He is married to actress Constance Shulman, who appears in ''

Orange is the New Black ''Orange Is the New Black'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''OITNB'') is an American comedy-drama streaming television series created by Jenji Kohan for Netflix. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir '' Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a ...

'', and they have two children together.Borison, Susan
"Actors Constance Shulman and Reed Birney Talk Parenting"
''Your Teen'', retrieved June 8, 2018 Their daughter Gus Birney is also an actor, as is their son, Ephraim.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Birney, Reed 1954 births American male stage actors American male film actors American male television actors Boston University College of Fine Arts alumni Drama Desk Award winners Living people Male actors from Virginia Tony Award winners