Kyra Sedgwick

Kyra Minturn Sedgwick (/ˈkɪərə ˈsɛdʒwɪk/ KEER-ə SEJ-wik; born August 19, 1965) is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her starring role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on the crime drama The Closer (2005–2012), for which she won a Golden Globe in 2007 and an Emmy Award in 2010. She also starred in the 1992 TV film Miss Rose White, which won an Emmy Award. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance in the 1995 film Something to Talk About. Sedgwick's other film credits include Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Cameron Crowe's Singles (1992). She also had a recurring role as Chief Madeline Wuntch on the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Sedgwick was born in New York City on August 19, 1965, the daughter of Patricia (née Rosenwald), a speech teacher and educational/family therapist, and Henry Dwight Sedgwick V, a venture capitalist. Her mother was Jewish and her father was Episcopalian and of English heritage. Sedgwick has identified as Jewish and has stated that she participates in Passover Seders.

She is a descendant of William Ellery, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence, and Ellery Sedgwick, an editor of The Atlantic Monthly. She is the sister of actor Robert Sedgwick, the half-sister of jazz guitarist Mike Stern, the first cousin once removed of actress Edie Sedgwick, and the niece of writer John Sedgwick. She is the aunt of R&B singer George Nozuka, actor Philip Nozuka, and singer/songwriter Justin Nozuka (their mother, Holly, is Sedgwick's half-sister).

Sedgwick's parents separated when she was four and divorced when she was six.

Sedgwick graduated from Friends Seminary and attended Sarah Lawrence College before transferring to the University of Southern California, where she graduated with a theater degree.

Sedgwick obtained her first acting job in 1982 on the television soap opera Another World, portraying Julia Shearer, troubled granddaughter of Liz Matthews. In 1988, she appeared in a TV version of Lanford Wilson's Lemon Sky. In 1989, Sedgwick played the role of Donna in the Oscar-winning Born on the Fourth of July.

Sedgwick played the title role in the Emmy Award–winning 1992 TV film Miss Rose White as a Jewish immigrant who comes to terms with her ethnicity. During the 1990s, she appeared in several Hollywood movies, including Singles (1992), Heart and Souls (1993), Something to Talk About (1995; for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress—Motion Picture), Phenomenon (1996; in which she played the love interest of John Travolta's character), and Critical Care (1997).

Sedgwick has starred alongside her husband Kevin Bacon in Pyrates (1991), The Woodsman (2004), The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022), and The Best You Can (2025). Other film credits include Secondhand Lions (2003), The Game Plan (2007), The Possession (2012), and The Edge of Seventeen (2016).