Dianne Evelyn Wiest (;, presenters' announcing her win at the 1987 awards confirm pronunciation, accessed August 20, 2014 born March 28, 1948)Multiple sources: is an American actress. She has won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Bullets Over Broadway (1994) (both directed by Woody Allen), one Golden Globe Award for Bullets Over Broadway, the 1997 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Road to Avonlea, and the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for In Treatment. In addition, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Parenthood (1989).
Other film appearances by Wiest include Footloose (1984), Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Radio Days and September (both 1987), The Lost Boys (1987), Bright Lights, Big City (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Little Man Tate (1991), The Birdcage (1996), Practical Magic (1998), Dan in Real Life (2007), Synecdoche, New York (2008), Rabbit Hole (2010), The Mule (2018), Let Them All Talk (2020) and I Care a Lot (2020). She also appeared in the television series Law & Order (2000–2002), the CBS comedy Life in Pieces (2015–2019), and the Hulu comedy Only Murders in the Building (2025).
Early life Wiest was born on March 28, 1948, in Kansas City, Missouri. Her mother, Anne Stewart (née Keddie), was a nurse. Her father, Bernard John Wiest, was a college dean and former psychiatric social worker for the U.S. Army. Her parents met in Algiers. Wiest has two brothers, Greg and Don. She attended high school at Nurnberg American High School in Germany. Her ambition was to be a ballet dancer, but she switched her goal to theater during her senior year."Dianne Wiest Lauded in German Press for Role in Senior Play 'Pygmalion,' NHS Trichter, Vol 15, No 3, fall 2003, p. 19. Wiest graduated from the University of Maryland in 1969 with a degree in Arts and Sciences.The Women of Maryland: Alumni Who Have Made A Difference . University of Maryland Women Alumni.
Career Stage
Wiest left her theater studies in Maryland after the third term in order to tour with a Shakespearean troupe. Later, she had a supporting role in a New York Shakespeare Festival production of Ashes.Dianne Wiest Profile . E!Online. She also acted at the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, playing the title role in Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. She was an understudy both off-Broadway and on Broadway, in Kurt Vonnegut's Happy Birthday, Wanda June in 1970.Happy Birthday, Wanda June listing at the Internet Broadway Database. Internet Broadway Database, accessed October 30, 2010Happy Birthday, Wanda June listing, Internet Off-Broadway Database listing . Internet Off-Broadway Database, accessed October 30, 2010
She made her Broadway debut in Robert Anderson's Solitaire/Double Solitaire, taking over in the role of the daughter in 1971. She landed a four-year job as a member of the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.,Dianne Wiest Biography. Yahoo! Movies. in such roles as Emily in Our Town, Honey in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and leading roles in S. Ansky's The Dybbuk, Maxim Gorky's The Lower Depths and George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House. She toured the USSR with the Arena Stage.Biography. tcm.com, accessed October 30, 2010 In 1976, Wiest attended the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and starred in leading roles in Amlin Gray's Pirates and Christopher Durang's A History of the American Film. At Joe Papp's Public Theater she took over the lead in Ashes, and played Cassandra in Agamemnon, directed by Andrei Șerban. In 1979, she originated the role of Agnes in Agnes of God in its first production in Waterford, Connecticut.Agnes of God A Drama accessed 11/23/2106
She appeared in two plays by Tina Howe: Museum and The Art of Dining. In the latter, Wiest's performance as the shy and awkward author Elizabeth Barrow Colt won three off-Broadway theater awards: an Obie Award (1980), a Theatre World Award (1979–1980) and the Clarence Derwent Award (1980), given yearly for the most promising performance in New York theatre.The Art of Dining listing, Internet Off-Broadway Database . Internet Off-Broadway Database, accessed October 30, 2010Wiest Obie Awards . villagevoice.com, accessed October 30, 2010Theatre World Awards History. theatreworldawards.org, accessed October 30, 2010Derwent Awards . actorsequity.org, accessed October 30, 2010
On Broadway she appeared in Frankenstein (1981), directed by Tom Moore, portrayed Desdemona in Othello (1982) opposite James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer, and co-starred with John Lithgow in Christopher Durang's romantic screwball comedy Beyond Therapy (1982), directed by John Madden. (She played opposite Lithgow again in the Herbert Ross film Footloose). During the 1980s, she also performed in Hedda Gabler, directed by Lloyd Richards at Yale Repertory Theatre,Gussow, Mel. Review: 'HEDDA GABLER' BY YALE REP". The New York Times, March 11, 1981 and in Harold Pinter's A Kind of Alaska (1984, Manhattan Theatre Club),New York Magazine listing. New York Magazine, April 30, 1984 Lanford Wilson's Serenading Louie (1984),Rich, Frank. Review: 'Serenading Louie'. The New York Times, February 3, 1984 and Janusz Glowacki's Hunting Cockroaches (1987, Manhattan Theater Club).Rich, Frank. Review, 'Hunting Cockroaches'. The New York Times, March 4, 1987 As Wiest became established as a film actress through her work in Woody Allen's films, she was less frequently available for stage roles. However, she did appear onstage during the 1990s, in In the Summer House, Square One, Cynthia Ozick's The Shawl, and Naomi Wallace's One Flea Spare. In 2003, she appeared with Al Pacino and Marisa Tomei in Oscar Wilde's Salome. In 2005, she starred in Kathleen Tolan's Memory House. She also starred in a production of Wendy Wasserstein's final play Third (directed by Daniel Sullivan) at Lincoln Center.Bacalzo, Dan. "Review: 'Third.
Later New York theater roles include performances as Arkadina in an off-Broadway revival of The Seagull (opposite Alan Cumming's Trigorin) and as Kate Keller in a Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, opposite John Lithgow, Patrick Wilson and Katie Holmes.Cohen, Patricia. "Two Fathers Are Learning Lessons of 'All My Sons'." The New York Times. November 12, 2008 In 2009, Wiest appeared in the National Memorial Day Concert on the Mall in Washington, D.C. in a dialogue with Katie Holmes celebrating the life of an American veteran seriously wounded in Iraq, José Pequeño."The Concert 2009 Features Families of Disabled Vets" PBS.org Wiest spent September 2010 as a visiting teacher at Columbia University's Graduate Acting Program,Faculty . columbia.edu, accessed October 30, 2010 working with a group of 18 first-year MFA Acting students on selected plays by Anton Chekhov and Arthur Miller.
In 2016, Wiest took on the role of "Winnie" in The Yale Repertory Theatre's production of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days. She reprised the role for Theatre for a New Audience in downtown Brooklyn, New York, in the spring of 2017, and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in 2019.
Film and television Her early screen roles include small roles in It's My Turn (credited onscreen as Diane Wiest) and I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can, both starring Jill Clayburgh in the lead roles. In 1984, she starred in Footloose, as the reverend's wife and Ariel Moore's mother. Under Woody Allen's direction, Wiest won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Hannah and Her Sisters in 1987 and Bullets Over Broadway in 1995.Wiest Academy Award wins and nominations. awardsdatabase.oscars.org, accessed October 31, 2010 She also appeared in three other Woody Allen films: The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Radio Days (1987) and September (1987).
She followed her first Oscar success with performances in The Lost Boys (1987) and Bright Lights, Big City (1988). She also starred with Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, Jason Robards, Keanu Reeves and Martha Plimpton in Ron Howard's Parenthood (1989), for which she received her second Oscar nomination. Other major film roles include Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands (1990), Jodie Foster's Little Man Tate (1991) and The Birdcage (1996), Mike Nichols's remake of La Cage aux Folles.
On television, her performance on the series Road to Avonlea in 1997 brought her her first Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Dramatic Series. She received another nomination for her performance in the telefilm The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn (1999), co-starring Sidney Poitier. She starred in the television miniseries The 10th Kingdom in 2000. From 2000 to 2002, Wiest portrayed interim District Attorney Nora Lewin in the NBC crime drama Law & Order. She also played the character in two episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and the pilot episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Wiest starred alongside Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche in Dan in Real Life (2007) and had a key supporting role in Charlie Kaufman's 2008 film Synecdoche, New York. In 2008, she also appeared as Gabriel Byrne's therapist, Gina Toll, on the HBO television series In Treatment, for which she received her second Emmy Award, for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She received another nomination (in the same category) for the second season, in 2009, but did not win.
She starred alongside Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole (2010), whom she worked with on Practical Magic. Rabbit Hole debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. Wiest also co-starred in Lawrence Kasdan's 2012 comedy Darling Companion, alongside Kevin Kline and Diane Keaton. In 2020, Wiest starred in Steven Soderbergh's drama Let Them All Talk alongside Meryl Streep and Candice Bergen. That same year she also starred opposite Rosamund Pike in the action thriller I Care a Lot.
From 2021 to 2023, she starred in the Paramount+ crime thriller series Mayor of Kingstown, and in 2025 it was announced that she would be joining the cast of Only Murders in the Building as the grieving widow of doorman Lester, Lorraine.
Personal life Wiest was in a relationship with her talent agent Sam Cohn for three years in the mid-1980s. She adopted two daughters: Emily and Lily.
Filmography
Film Year Title Role Notes1980It's My TurnGailCredited as Diane Wiest1982I'm Dancing as Fast as I CanJulie Addison1983Face of RageRebecca HammilIndependence DayNancy Morgan1984Falling in LoveIsabelleFootlooseVi Moore1985Emma1986Hannah and Her SistersHolly1987Radio DaysBeaSeptemberStephanieLucy Emerson1988Bright Lights, Big CityMrs. Conway1989ParenthoodHelen BuckmanCookieLenore Voltecki1990Edward ScissorhandsPeg Boggs1991Little Man TateJane Grierson1994Bullets Over BroadwayHelen SinclairCops & RobbersonsHelen RobbersonDoctor H. Aaron1995DrunksRachel1996Sally DuganLouise Keeley 1998Practical MagicAunt Bridget 'Jet' OwensDiane Booker2001I Am SamAnnie Cassell2002Merci Docteur ReyElisabeth Beaumont2005RobotsLydia CopperbottomVoice2006Flori Montiel2007DedicationCarolDan in Real LifeNana Burns2008PassengersToniSynecdoche, New YorkEllen Bascomb / Millicent Weems2009RageMiss Roth2010Rabbit HoleNat2011The Big YearBrenda Harris2012Darling CompanionPenny AlexanderMs. Crudstaff2014The HumblingCarol Stapleford2015Five Nights in MaineLucindaSistersDeana Ellis 2018 The MuleMary Stone 2020I Care a LotJennifer Peterson Let Them All TalkSusan 2022My Father's DragonIris the RhinocerosVoice2024Apartment 7AMinnie Castevet2026Practical Magic 2Aunt Bridget 'Jet' OwensClosing NightDianeCompleted
Television