Julie White

Personal life

White was born in the Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego, California, the daughter of Sue Jane (née Terry), a therapist, and Edwin White, a dentist. White and her family moved to Austin, Texas, to take up ranching when she was three years old. She started acting in local plays and became a semi-professional at 16. While she was playing the lead role in the musical, The Baker's Wife, the show's authors encouraged her to take her talent to New York City.

After graduating from high school, she attended Southwest Texas State University (now known as Texas State University) and then attended Fordham University as an English major, although she did not graduate. White married Carl Pandel in 1984; they divorced in 1990.

Career

White has been a prolific stage actress, getting her start in regional theatre. Some of her regional theater credits include On the Verge at the Huntington Theatre Company, Boston, Massachusetts, 1985–1986, Largo desolato at the Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut, 1990-1991, Marvin's Room at Seattle Repertory Theatre in January 1992, Absurd Person Singular in 1993 at the Long Wharf Theatre, Money and Friends by David Williamson at the UCLA James A. Doolittle Theatre, Hollywood, California, presented by the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson in January to March 1993,

White made her off-Broadway debut in Lucky Stiff in 1988 at Playwrights Horizons. She appeared in Just Say No (1988) and in the off-Broadway WPA Theatre production of Early One Evening At the Rainbow Bar and Grille (1989) by Bruce Graham. She appeared in The Stick Wife by Darrah Cloud produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club at Stage II in 1991.

She appeared in Michael John LaChiusa's Over Texas, presented as part of the Ensemble Studio Theater's Marathon in 1991.

She appeared at the off-Broadway Second Stage production of the Theresa Rebeck play Spike Heels with Kevin Bacon and Tony Goldwyn in 1992. Frank Rich wrote: "Julie White makes a far more vivid impression. Rail-thin but with a broad face and features, this actress has an off-center style and piquant wit that make her a natural for high comedy of this or any other period." White appeared in a one-woman show, Theresa Rebeck's Bad Dates, written especially for her. The play premiered off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in June 2003.

On Broadway, White appeared in Wendy Wasserstein's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, The Heidi Chronicles, as a replacement. She also appeared in the made-for-television movie of The Heidi Chronicles, which aired in 1995.

In 2006, she appeared off-Broadway in The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane, playing Diane, a screen agent, who, as one critic put it, is "a Mephistopheles in Manolos". The show transferred to Broadway in October 2006 with a new cast, including former Grace Under Fire costar Tom Everett Scott. She won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her performance.

White played Nadine, the quirky neighbor on Grace Under Fire. White joined the show when it launched in 1993 and appeared in the first four seasons. However, she did not appear in the show's final season. Her departure was attributed to conflict with the show's star, Brett Butler.

White has subsequently made several guest appearances on HBO's Six Feet Under as Mitzi Dalton-Huntley and on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Dr. Anne Morella. White also appeared on Desperate Housewives as Amanda in the Season Two finale but chose to turn down a recurring role when she was offered the role in The Little Dog Laughed. She plays Judy Witwicky, mother of the main human character Sam Witwicky, in Transformers and its sequels, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. White appeared in the ABC sitcom Cavemen in 2007.

In 2008, White received a Drama Desk Award nomination as Outstanding Actress in a Play for her role in the play From Up Here. In 2009, she appeared in the HBO original movie Taking Chance starring Kevin Bacon. She also lent her voice to the 2009 computer-animated film Monsters vs. Aliens.

White has served several times as a guest judge on the reality TV series Iron Chef America. Julie White stepped into the role of Masha, originated by Sigourney Weaver, in Christopher Durang's 2013 Tony Award winner for Best Play, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, on Broadway, from July 28th until August 25th, 2013, at the Golden Theatre.

In 2013, White was a series regular on Amazon's Alpha House, a political comedy series written by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau. White plays Maddie Biggs, the wife of North Carolina Senator Gil John Biggs, played by John Goodman. White will also appear in the show's second season, which is filming over the summer of 2014.

In 2014 she joined the cast of the Showtime television drama Nurse Jackie for its sixth season.

She appeared on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of the Lisa D'Amour play Airline Highway in April 2015 to June 2015. White was nominated for the 2015 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play and the 2015 Tony Award, Featured Actress in a Play. Later in 2015, she played Kate opposite Matthew Broderick and Annaleigh Ashford in Sylvia at the Cort Theatre.

In July 2017, White stepped into the role of Nora in A Doll's House, Part 2 at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway, succeeding Laurie Metcalf.