New York City native Tovah Feldshuh made her professional debut in 1971 at the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis in Cyrano de Bergerac, and her Broadway debut two years later in the musical version of the Rostand play. For her work on the New York stage—from Yentl (1975) to Sarava! (1978) to Lend Me a Tenor (1989) and Golda’s Balcony (2003)—Feldshuh has earned four Tony nominations for Best Actress, four Drama Desk awards, four Outer Critics Circle awards, and the Obie and Theater World awards. In 2000, she starred off-Broadway as Tallulah Bankhead in a piece she wrote called Tallulah Hallelujah!, chosen as one of the ten best plays of the year by USA Today. She made her cabaret debut at the Algonquin Oak Room with her act Tovah: Crossovah! From Broadway to Cabaret, and she made a world tour with her one-woman show Tovah: Out of Her Mind! (1999). On the West Coast, she had performing roles at the Music Center in Los Angeles and the Old Globe Theater in San Diego. For television, she received an Emmy nomination for Holocaust and played the role of Katharine Hepburn opposite Tommy Lee Jones in The Amazing Howard Hughes, and remains active most recently appearing in recurring roles on The Walking Dead (AMC) and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (CW). For her charity work, Feldshuh has been honored with the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanities Award, Hadassah’s Myrtle Wreath, and the Israel Peace Medal. Golda’s Balcony, which won the Lucille Lortel award for Best Actress off-Broadway, moved to Broadway and received the Drama Desk award for Best Solo Performance.
(Updated: 3/14/2019)
