Julie White
Encyclopedia
Julie White is an American actress. She is known for her role in Grace Under Fire and for her role as Judy Witwicky in the Transformers film series
.
, 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 followed their advice, enrolling as a history major at Fordham University
.
. Her theater credits include roles in Absurd Person Singular
, Money and Friends, Marvin's Room
, Largo Desolato
and On the Verge. White made her off-Broadway
debut as the lead in Lucky Stiff
. Her other off-Broadway credits include The Stick Wife, Early One Evening, Just Say No
, Over Texas, and a starring role in Spike Heels with Kevin Bacon
and Tony Goldwyn
. White also appeared in a one-woman show, Theresa Rebeck
's Bad Dates, written especially for her.
On Broadway, White appeared in a production of Wendy Wasserstein
's Pulitzer Prize
-winning play, The Heidi Chronicles
. In 2006, she appeared 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, originally produced off-Broadway, transferred to Broadway 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, over fellow nominees Angela Lansbury
, Vanessa Redgrave
, Swoosie Kurtz
and Eve Best
.
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 troubled 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 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
.
Transformers (film series)
Transformers is an American film franchise directed by Michael Bay, and based on the toys created by Hasbro and Takara Tomy. The first film, Transformers, was released in 2007, the second film, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, in 2009, and the third film, Transformers: Dark of the Moon in 2011...
.
Personal life
White was born in the Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego, California, the daughter of Sue Jane, a therapist, and Edwin White, a dentist. White and her family moved to AustinAustin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, 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 Baker's Wife
The Baker's Wife is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and the book by Joseph Stein, based on the French film La Femme du Boulanger by Marcel Pagnol and Jean Giono...
, the show's authors encouraged her to take her talent to New York City. After graduating from high school, she followed their advice, enrolling as a history major at Fordham University
Fordham University
Fordham University is a private, nonprofit, coeducational research university in the United States, with three campuses in and around New York City. It was founded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841 as St...
.
Career
White has been a prolific stage actress, getting her start in regional theatreRegional theatre in the United States
Regional theaters, or resident theaters, in the United States are professional or semi-professional, theater companies that produce their own seasons. The term regional theatre most often refers to professional theatres outside of New York City...
. Her theater credits include roles in Absurd Person Singular
Absurd Person Singular
Absurd Person Singular is a 1972 play by Alan Ayckbourn. Divided into three acts, it documents the changing fortunes of three married couples...
, Money and Friends, Marvin's Room
Marvin's Room (play)
Marvin's Room is a play by written by Scott McPherson that premiered off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons on 15 November 1991, and later adapted for a film of the same title in 1996 ....
, Largo Desolato
Largo desolato
Largo desolato is a play by Václav Havel. It is about a political writer, Leopold Nettles , who fears being sent back into prison. During the play, Leopold faces extreme pressure from his wife, two members of what appears to be the secret police, among others...
and On the Verge. White made her off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
debut as the lead in Lucky Stiff
Lucky Stiff
Lucky Stiff is a musical farce. It was the first collaboration for the team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty . The show is based on the 1983 novel The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo by Michael Butterworth...
. Her other off-Broadway credits include The Stick Wife, Early One Evening, Just Say No
Just Say No (play)
Just Say No, a 1988 play by American writer Larry Kramer, was an attack on the Ronald Reagan administration and the Mayor of New York, Ed Koch, over what Kramer saw as their hypocrisy and inertia in responding to AIDS. It was less successful than The Normal Heart, possibly due to its sharply...
, Over Texas, and a starring role in Spike Heels with Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Trapped, Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, Crazy, Stupid, Love....
and Tony Goldwyn
Tony Goldwyn
Anthony Howard "Tony" Goldwyn is an American actor and director. He portrayed the villain Carl Bruner in Ghost, Colonel Bagley in The Last Samurai, and the voice of the title character of the Disney animated Tarzan.-Early life:...
. White also appeared in a one-woman show, Theresa Rebeck
Theresa Rebeck
Theresa Rebeck is an American playwright, television writer and novelist. Her work has appeared on the Broadway and Off-Broadway stage, in film, and on television. Among her awards are the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award.-Biography:...
's Bad Dates, written especially for her.
On Broadway, White appeared in a production of Wendy Wasserstein
Wendy Wasserstein
Wendy Wasserstein was an American playwright and an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University...
's Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning play, The Heidi Chronicles
The Heidi Chronicles
The Heidi Chronicles is a 1988 play by Wendy Wasserstein. The play won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.-Production history:A workshop production at Seattle Repertory Theatre was held in April 1988, directed by Daniel J. Sullivan....
. In 2006, she appeared in The Little Dog Laughed
The Little Dog Laughed (play)
The Little Dog Laughed is a play by Douglas Carter Beane.The four characters are an actor, Mitchell, his acerbic agent Diane, a hustler named Alex, and Alex's girlfriend Ellen...
by Douglas Carter Beane
Douglas Carter Beane
Douglas Carter Beane is an American playwright and screenwriter. Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Beane now lives in New York...
, playing Diane, a screen agent, who, as one critic put it, is "a Mephistopheles in Manolos". The show, originally produced off-Broadway, transferred to Broadway with a new cast, including former Grace Under Fire costar Tom Everett Scott
Tom Everett Scott
Thomas "Tom" Everett Scott is an American film, theatre and television actor. His film work includes a starring role as drummer Guy Patterson in the film That Thing You Do! .-Career:...
. She won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
This is a list of the winners and nominations of Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. The award has been presented since 1947, and is for performance in new productions or revivals.-1940s:...
for her performance, over fellow nominees Angela Lansbury
Angela Lansbury
Angela Brigid Lansbury CBE is an English actress and singer in theatre, television and motion pictures, whose career has spanned eight decades and earned her more performance Tony Awards than any other individual , with five wins...
, Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
, Swoosie Kurtz
Swoosie Kurtz
Swoosie Kurtz is an American actress. She began her career in theater during the 1970s and shortly thereafter began a career in television, garnering ten nominations and winning one Emmy Award. Her most famous television project was her role on the 1990s NBC drama Sisters...
and Eve Best
Eve Best
Eve Best is an English actress, best known for her roles as Dr. O'Hara in the Showtime television series Nurse Jackie, as Wallis Simpson in the 2010 film The King's Speech, and Dolley Madison in the 2011 American Experience television special about that First Lady.-Early life and education:Best...
.
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 troubled star, Brett Butler
Brett Butler (comedian)
Brett Butler is an American actress, writer, and stand-up comedian, best known for playing the title role in the comedy series Grace Under Fire.-Early life:...
.
White has subsequently made several guest appearances on HBO's Six Feet Under as Mitzi Dalton-Huntley and on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...
as Dr. Anne Morella. White also appeared on Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producer Cherry serves as Showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season include Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...
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
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a 2009 American science fiction-action film directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. It is the sequel to the 2007 film Transformers and the second installment in the live-action Transformers series...
and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. White appeared in the ABC sitcom Cavemen
Cavemen (TV series)
Cavemen is an American comedy-drama show which ran on ABC from October 2, 2007 to November 13, 2007. The show was created by Joe Lawson and set in San Diego, California...
in 2007.
In 2008, White received a Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
nomination for her role in the play From Up Here. In 2009, she appeared in the HBO original movie Taking Chance
Taking Chance
Taking Chance is a 2009 historical drama film based upon the experiences of Marine Lt. Col. Michael Strobl , who escorts the body of a fallen Marine, PFC Chance Phelps , back to his hometown from the Iraq War....
starring Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Trapped, Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, Crazy, Stupid, Love....
. She also lent her voice to the 2009 computer-animated film Monsters vs. Aliens
Monsters vs. Aliens
Monsters vs. Aliens is a 2009 American computer-animated 3-D science fiction film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures...
.
White has served several times as a guest judge on the reality TV series Iron Chef America
Iron Chef America
Iron Chef America: The Series is an American cooking show based on Fuji Television's Iron Chef, and is the second American adaptation of the series, following the failed Iron Chef USA. The show is produced by Food Network, which also carried a dubbed version of the original Iron Chef. Like the...
.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991–1992 | Law & Order Law & Order Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,... |
Sandy | 2 episodes |
| 1995 | The Heidi Chronicles | Fran | |
| 1997 | Flypaper | Cindy | |
| 1993–1997 | Grace Under Fire | Nadine Swoboda | 97 episodes |
| 1998 | Arli$$ | N/A | 1 episode |
| 1999 | Touched by an Angel Touched by an Angel Touched by an Angel is an American drama series that premiered on CBS on September 21, 1994 and ran for 211 episodes and nine seasons until its conclusion on April 27, 2003. Created by John Masius and produced by Martha Williamson, the series stars Roma Downey, as an angel named Monica, and Della... |
Molly Avery | 1 episode |
| 2000 | What Women Want What Women Want What Women Want is a 2000 American romantic comedy film, directed by Nancy Meyers and starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. The movie was a box office success with a domestic gross of $182,811,707 and a worldwide gross of $374,111,707, against a budget of $70 million.-Plot:Nick Marshall, a Chicago... |
N/A | Unconfirmed |
| 2000 | Strong Medicine Strong Medicine Strong Medicine is a medical drama with a focus on feminist politics, health issues and class conflict. The television series aired on the Lifetime network from 2000 to 2006. It is distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The series was created and produced in part by comedienne and... |
Caitlin Crawford | 1 episode |
| 2000 | JAG JAG JAG is an American adventure/legal drama television show that was produced by Belisarius Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television and, for the first season only, NBC Productions... |
Det. Wanda Schilling | 1 episode |
| 2001 | Thieves | Barb Lieser | 1 episode |
| 2001 | Say It Isn't So | Ruthie Falwell | |
| 2001 | Nathan's Choice | Marcia | |
| 2001 | Six Feet Under Six Feet Under Six Feet Under is an American drama television series created and produced by Alan Ball. It premiered on the premium cable network HBO in the United States on June 3, 2001 and ended on August 21, 2005, spanning five seasons and 63 episodes. The show was produced by Actual Size Films and The... |
Mitzi Dalton Huntley | 4 episodes |
| 2002 | Slap Her... She's French | Bootsie Grady | |
| 2003 | Whoopi | Press Secretary | 1 episode |
| 2003 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced... |
Dr. Anne Morella | 5 episodes, 2003–2007 |
| 2004 | Rescue Me Rescue Me (TV series) Rescue Me is an American television drama series that premiered on the FX Network on July 21, 2004, and concluded on September 7, 2011. The series focuses on the professional and personal lives of a group of New York City firefighters in the fictitious Ladder 62 / Engine 99 firehouse.The show... |
Dr. Goldberg | 1 episode |
| 2004 | Sunday on the Rocks | Elly | |
| 2005 | War of the Worlds | Woman | |
| 2006 | The Astronaut Farmer The Astronaut Farmer The Astronaut Farmer is a 2006 American drama film directed by Michael Polish, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Mark. The story focuses on a Texas rancher who constructs a rocket in his barn and, against all odds, launches himself into outer space.-Plot:Charles Farmer is a former... |
Beth Goode | |
| 2006 | Desperate Housewives Desperate Housewives Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producer Cherry serves as Showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season include Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W... |
Amanda | 2 episodes |
| 2007 | Michael Clayton Michael Clayton Michael Rashard Clayton is an American football wide receiver who is currently signed with the New York Giants in the National Football League. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 15th overall in the 2004 NFL Draft... |
Mrs. Greer | |
| 2007 | The Nanny Diaries The Nanny Diaries (film) The Nanny Diaries is a 2007 American comedy-drama film, based on the novel of the same name by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. Written and directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, it stars Scarlett Johansson, Alicia Keys, Paul Giamatti, and Laura Linney; and was produced by Richard N... |
Jane Gould | |
| 2007 | Transformers | Judy Witwicky | |
| 2007 | Cavemen | Leslie | 7 episodes |
| 2009 | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a 2009 American science fiction-action film directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. It is the sequel to the 2007 film Transformers and the second installment in the live-action Transformers series... |
Judy Witwicky | |
| 2009 | Breaking Upwards | Joanie | |
| 2009 | Monsters vs. Aliens Monsters vs. Aliens Monsters vs. Aliens is a 2009 American computer-animated 3-D science fiction film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures... |
Wendy Murphy | Voice |
| 2009 | Taking Chance Taking Chance Taking Chance is a 2009 historical drama film based upon the experiences of Marine Lt. Col. Michael Strobl , who escorts the body of a fallen Marine, PFC Chance Phelps , back to his hometown from the Iraq War.... |
Colonel Karen Bell | |
| 2010 | Funny in Farsi | Candace Smiley | 1 episode |
| 2010 | Language of a Broken Heart | Mimi | |
| 2010 | Morning | Mary | |
| 2011 | Transformers: Dark of the Moon | Judy Witwicky |
External links
- Leading Ladies, Working in the Theatre video from American Theatre WingAmerican Theatre WingThe American Theatre Wing is a New York City-based organization "dedicated to supporting excellence and education in theatre," according to its mission statement...
, December 2006 - BroadwayWorld Article: "Julie White to Star in 'From Up Here' at MTC"