Amy Ryan

Born in New York City's Queens borough, Ryan (Exact height: 5' 4½" (1.64 m)) and her sister delivered the Daily News by bike when growing up in the 1970s. At a young age, she attended the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Center in upstate New York. At 17, she graduated from New York's High School of Performing Arts. Hired for the National Tour of Biloxi Blues right out of high school, Ryan worked steadily Off-Broadway for the next decade. She also worked in regional theater, where she originated roles in new plays by Neil LaBute, Arthur Miller and Neil Simon.

Her Broadway debut came in 1993, as Tess in The Sisters Rosensweig, and she replaced Calista Flockhart as Natasha in a 1997 revival of The Three Sisters. In 2000, Ryan received the first of two Best Supporting Actress Tony Award nominations for playing the love-starved Sonya in Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov. An appearance as Peggy in the 2001 Broadway revival of The Women followed, and she was again nominated for a Tony for playing Stella Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire in 2005.

Following a brief stint playing a runaway on As the World Turns, Ryan was cast in television series such as I'll Fly Away, in which she played a high school temptress, and Brooklyn Bridge, where she played Marion Ross' character in flashbacks. After roles on ER and Chicago Hope, Ryan became a series regular on The Naked Truth as Tea Leoni's spoiled stepdaughter.

By 2001, director Sidney Lumet cast her in 100 Centre Street playing three different roles (Ellen, Paris and Rebecca). Ryan went on to feature prominently in the second season of HBO's The Wire, playing Port Authority Officer Beadie Russell, and also appeared in several episodes of NBC's Law & Order. She appeared for a six-episode arc on The Office as dorky HR rep Holly Flax. She is in negotiations to reprise her role on The Office by the end of Season 5.

Due to her scene playing Eric Stoltz's wife being deleted from Grace of my Heart, Ryan made her 1999 movie debut in Roberta. She then appeared in You Can Count on Me and Keane. Albert Brooks chose her to play his wife in Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World in 2005, and 2007 brought both Dan in Real Life and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Her role as a star-struck sheriff's wife in Capote earned her positive reviews, but it was playing a hardened Welfare mom in Ben Affleck's Gone Baby Gone that finally brought her national attention.

After being voted Best Supporting Actress for Gone Baby Gone by the National Board of Review as well as the critics circles in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, DC, Ryan's performance was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role at the 80th Academy Awards.

Ryan's current film Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood, premiered in the fall of 2008, and she will also appear opposite Matt Damon in Paul Greengrass's next project, Green Zone. She is presently slated to act opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman in his directorial film debut, Jack Goes Boating.