Alexandra Tydings

Personal life

Alexandra Tydings was born on December 15, 1972, in Washington, D.C. She has four sisters and one brother, and is the daughter of former Maryland senator Joseph Tydings and the granddaughter of former Maryland senator Millard Tydings. She is a graduate of Sidwell Friends School and Brown University, with a degree in film and critical theory. She speaks English, French and Spanish.

Tydings counts Katharine Hepburn and Kevin Spacey among her favorite actors, and as she told Whoosh.org, she most enjoys the research and collaborating process of acting; auditioning is her least favorite part of theater arts. She competed in Irish dancing as a child, and performed with The Royal Ballet of London at the Kennedy Center. Dance led to performance of all kinds; in addition to acting, she was the singer and bassist of bands Annabelle Kickbox and She's Seen You Naked.

Whoosh.org points out that Tydings maintained a vegetarian diet for fourteen years, and that she enjoys gardening.

Career

After graduating from Brown University, Tydings moved to Hollywood to pursue an acting career. In her first major feature film, she played opposite Woody Harrelson in Oscar winner Michael Cimino's The Sunchaser, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. She has since performed in dozens of roles in film, television and theater, including six years as a series regular on Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

In 2015, Tydings wrote and directed The Trial of Hanna Porn, a multi-media history of the ongoing struggle for control of the female body, which won the Best of Fringe award at the Charm City Fringe Festival. She then went on to write, direct and produce Rainbow Bridge, an independent film about the intersecting lives of two women who find themselves navigating the challenging legal and emotional landscape of reproductive rights in the United States today.