Amy Lauren Landecker (born September 30, 1969) is an American actress. She is known for her role as Sarah Pfefferman on the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

comedy-drama series '' Transparent'' (2014–2019), as well as her supporting roles in films '' Dan in Real Life'' (2007), ''

A Serious Man ''A Serious Man'' is a 2009 American black comedy-drama film written, produced, edited and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Set in 1967, the film stars Michael Stuhlbarg as a Minnesota Jewish man whose life crumbles both professionally and ...

'' (2009), ''

All Is Bright ''All Is Bright'' (released as ''Almost Christmas'' in the UK) is a 2013 comedy-drama film directed by Phil Morrison. It stars Paul Giamatti and Paul Rudd, with Sally Hawkins and Amy Landecker in supporting roles. The film debuted at the 20 ...

'' (2013), '' Project Almanac'' (2015) and '' Beatriz at Dinner'' (2017).

Early life

Landecker was born September 30, 1969, in Chicago, Illinois. She is the daughter of

John Records Landecker John Records Landecker (born March 28, 1947) is an American Top40/oldies disc jockey best known for his trademark saying "Records truly is my middle name" and creating ''Boogie Check'', ''Americana Panorama'', and satirical songs and bits based o ...

, a Chicago radio personality. One of her maternal great-grandfathers was lawyer

Joseph N. Welch Joseph Nye Welch (October 22, 1890 – October 6, 1960) was an American lawyer and actor who served as the chief counsel for the United States Army while it was under investigation for Communist activities by Senator Joseph McCarthy's Senate Pe ...

. She attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison, studying theater. Her paternal grandfather was a

German Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

refugee.

Career

Landecker earned her

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

card doing a voiceover for a

Tampax Tampax (a portmanteau of tampon and pack) is a brand of tampon currently owned by Procter & Gamble. It was based in White Plains, New York, US until its sale to Procter & Gamble in 1997. It is a subsidiary of P&G's Always brand and is sold in ...

commercial. In the commercial, Landecker echoes the voice of the on-camera actress, saying only the word "ballet", but made $10,000 in residuals from the commercial. Landecker recalls, "I never saw money like that in my life, and it didn't even matter what I looked like! I was hooked on oiceoverfrom then on!" Early in her career, Landecker primarily focused on stage work, including but not limited to Rajiv Joseph's '' All This Intimacy'' in 2006, and did not move to Los Angeles until she was 38. Since then, she has appeared in numerous films and television shows, including a supporting role as Mrs. Samsky in the

Academy Award for Best Picture The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only categor ...

-nominated film ''

'', directed by the

Coen brothers Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957),State of Minnesota. ''Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002''. Minnesota Department of Health. collectively known as the Coen brothers (), are American film ...

. That performance received praise from many film critics, including Roger Ebert, who wrote, "Amy Landecker, too, is perfect as Mrs. Samsky. She makes the character sexy in a strictly logical sense, but any prudent man would know on first sight to stay clear". In 2011, Landecker was a regular cast member of '' The Paul Reiser Show'' on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

, playing Paul Reiser's wife, Claire. On television, she has guest starred on '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'', '' Law & Order: Criminal Intent'', ''

NCIS NCIS or N.C.I.S. may refer to: Law enforcement * National Criminal Intelligence Service, the predecessor to the Serious Organised Crime Agency of the United Kingdom * Naval Criminal Investigative Service, a United States law enforcement and intelli ...

'', ''

Curb Your Enthusiasm ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' is an American television sitcom produced and broadcast by HBO since October 15, 2000, and created by Larry David, who stars as a semi-fictionalized version of himself. It follows David's life as a semi-retired televis ...

'' (where she met and started to date

Larry David Lawrence Gene David (born July 2, 1947) is an American comedian, writer, actor, and television producer. He and Jerry Seinfeld created the television sitcom ''Seinfeld'', on which David was head writer and executive producer for the first sev ...

), ''

Revenge Revenge is committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Francis Bacon described revenge as a kind of "wild justice" that "does... offend the law ndputteth the law out of office." Pr ...

'', and many more series. She has also appeared in a number of

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

theatrical productions, including '' Bug''. In 2013, Landecker co-starred in films ''

'', '' Clear History'' and '' Enough Said''. In 2014, she was cast alongside Jeffrey Tambor and Judith Light in the

Amazon Studios Amazon Studios is an American television and film producer and distributor that is a subsidiary of Amazon. It specializes in developing television series and distributing and producing films. It was started in late 2010. Content is distributed t ...

comedy-drama series, '' Transparent''. She co-starred in the

Michael Bay Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer. He is best known for making big-budget, high-concept action films characterized by fast cutting, stylistic cinematography and visuals, and extensive use o ...

-produced time travel thriller '' Project Almanac'', which was released in January 2015.

Personal life

Landecker divorced Jackson Lynch, with whom she has a daughter, in 2011. She began dating actor Bradley Whitford, whom she met on the set of '' Transparent,'' in 2015. They announced their engagement in March 2018 and married on July 17, 2019.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Landecker, Amy 1969 births 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses Actresses from Chicago American film actresses American people of English descent American people of German-Jewish descent American stage actresses American television actresses Living people University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni