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BIOGRAPHY
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David Hyde Pierce
Actor from the acclaimed television series Frasier |
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Throughout his childhood in Saratoga Springs, New York, David Hyde Pierce trained for a career as a concert pianist. It was during Pierce’s college education at Yale University that he was informed this was a big mistake. Instead, Pierce went on to become an actor. Pierce currently stars in the NBC comedy hit, “Frasier” in which he has received critical acclaim for his role as Dr. Niles Crane. The five-time Emmy Award winning sitcom has been a consistent success since its debut in 1993. Pierce is a three-time Emmy Award winner for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, he has won multiple American Comedy Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Award, the Viewers’ for Quality Television Award, and the Television Critics Association Award. Previous television credits include a starring role in the NBC series “The Powers That Be,” and guest starring roles in series including “Crime Story,” “Spencer: For Hire” and “The Outer Limits,” for which he won a Cable Ace Award. Last year, Pierce appeared as a wacky motivational speaker in the hit show, “Titus.” Pierce recently co-starred with Ewan McGregor, Renee Zelwegger and Sarah Paulson in “Down with Love.” Pierce portrayed the owner of a publishing company and best friend to a womanizing, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist (played by Ewan McGregor). Last year, Pierce starred in the feature film, “Full Frontal,” directed by Steven Soderbergh. The Miramax picture also starred Julia Roberts, David Duchovny and Catherine Keener. In November, he was featured as the voice of “Doctor Doppler” in Disney’s Academy Award nominated “Treasure Planet.” Last summer, while on hiatus from “Frasier,” Pierce was seen in the acclaimed, two-person play, “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks,” with Uta Hagen. The play was performed at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. This marked the second time Pierce worked under the direction of Arthur Allan Seidelman, the first being in 2000 starred in the highly praised, Los Angeles stage production of The Boys from Syracuse. On the big screen, Pierce starred in USA Films feature film “Wet, Hot American Summer,” directed and produced by David Wain. “Wet, Hot American Summer” debuted in competition at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and also stars Janeane Garofolo and Paul Rudd. Also last summer, Pierce lent his voice in the Warner Bros. feature-length animated film “Osmosis Jones,” which also starred voice-overs by Chris Rock and Joel Silver. Pierce last lent his voice to the character of Slim, the walking stick bug, in the Thanksgiving 1998 release of “A Bug’s Life.” In January 2000, Pierce was seen starring in “Isn’t She Great,” the Universal Pictures big screen biography of author Jacqueline Susann. In 1988, Pierce made his feature film debut in “Bright Lights, Big City,” followed by parts in “Crossing Delancey” and “Rocket Gibraltar” that same year. Pierce then landed larger roles in “Sleepless in Seattle” opposite Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan and Oliver Stone’s “Nixon,” in which he played John Dean. Other film credits include “Little Man Tate,” “The Fisher King,” and “Wolf.” Upon graduation from Yale in 1981 as an English and theater arts major, Pierce pursued his acting career in New York City and secured his first professional acting job in the Broadway production of Christopher Durang’s, Beyond Therapy, co-starring John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest. Pierce’s next Broadway role was opposite Christine Lahti in Wendy Wasserstein’s award-winning play, The Heidi Chronicles. Off Broadway, Pierce appeared in numerous plays including Mike Nichols’ production of Jules Feiffer’s Elliot Loves, Peter Brooks’ production of The Cherry Orchard, Richard Greenberg’s The Author’s Voice, and Much Ado About Nothing, and Hamlet with the New York Shakespeare Festival, Holiday and Camille at the Long Wharf in New Haven, Candida at the Goodman in Chicago, The Seagull, Tartuffe, Cyrano, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. Pierce currently resides in Los Angeles. |
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