Lily Rabe

Lily Rabe (born June 29, 1982) is an American actress.

In 2001, Rabe made her screen debut opposite her mother Jill Clayburgh in the film Never Again.

She made her professional stage debut, again opposite her mother, at the Gloucester Stage Company in Massachusetts.

She starred in two one-act plays, Speaking Well of the Dead by Israel Horovitz and The Crazy Girl by Frank Pugliese, roles that enabled her to get an Equity Card.

In July 2003, she returned to the Gloucester Stage Company to appear in Proof by David Auburn.

That year, she also appeared in the film Mona Lisa Smile.

After graduating, she moved back to New York.

She then went on to study acting at Northwestern University, graduating in 2004.

From September 29 through October 2, 2004, she appeared in White Jesus by Deirdre O'Connor, one of a series of one-act plays presented as The Democracy Project from the Naked Angels Theater Company.

On January 21, 2005, she took part in a workshop production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas at the Roundabout Theatre Company, directed by Joe Mantello.

She made her Broadway debut as Annelle Dupuy-Desoto in the 2005 revival of Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling, directed by Jason Moore for which she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award.

She had been cast in the play Sisters of the Garden, but had to drop out after being cast in Steel Magnolias.

From September through to October 2005, she appeared in the American premiere of Colder Than Here by English playwright Laura Wade at the MCC Theater, prompting New York Magazine's Jeremy McCarter to call her performance "one of the best breakthroughs" of 2005.

From September to December 2006, she played Ellie Dunn in Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Heartbreak House by George Bernard Shaw.

In 2007, she appeared in the film No Reservations.

In August 2007, Rabe appeared in Crimes of the Heart at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the directorial debut of actress Kathleen Turner.

Her film credits include What Just Happened (2008), All Good Things (2010), Pawn Sacrifice (2014), Miss Stevens (2016), Golden Exits (2017), Vice (2018), Fractured (2019) and The Tender Bar (2021).

In 2008, the production moved Off-Broadway to the Laura Pels Theatre, where it was staged by the Roundabout Theatre Company and ran from February 14 to April 13.

During a rehearsal, a piece of the set fell on Rabe, leaving her with a fractured rib and causing her to miss a week of preview performances; the opening night was changed from February 7 to February 14.

In August 2008, Rabe was cast as a plainclothes cop in the pilot of the HBO 1970s drama Last of the Ninth, written by David Milch and directed by Carl Franklin.

In December 2008, it was reported that HBO had decided not to pick it up as a series.

That year, Rabe appeared in the films What Just Happened and The Toe Tactic, as well as two episodes of Medium.

From January to March 2009, she appeared in the Broadway premiere of Richard Greenberg's 1990 play The American Plan at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

In 2010, she made her debut appearance at Shakespeare in the Park in a production of The Merchant of Venice, directed by Daniel J. Sullivan, that ran from June 30 to August 1.

Rabe was cast as Portia, which she described as "one of the great female roles."

She also co-starred in the 2010 film All Good Things.

Rabe next starred in The Merchant of Venice, opposite Al Pacino as Shylock, in a performance described as a "smashing break-out".

The production transferred to Broadway at the Broadhurst Theater, where it ran from October 19, 2010, to February 20, 2011.

For her performance, she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

She is best known for her multiple roles on the FX anthology horror series American Horror Story (2011–2021).

For her performance as Portia in the Broadway production of The Merchant of Venice, she received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

On television, she appeared in the series The Whispers (2015), The Undoing (2020), The Underground Railroad (2021) and The First Lady (2022).

Rabe was born on New York City's Upper West Side, the daughter of playwright David Rabe and actress Jill Clayburgh.

She has a younger brother, Michael, an actor and playwright; and an older paternal half-brother, Jason, a musician.

Her father is Roman Catholic, her maternal grandfather was Jewish, and her maternal grandmother was Protestant.

Rabe was raised in Bedford, New York, but moved to Lakeville, Connecticut, when she was in seventh grade, where she attended the Hotchkiss School.

Rabe studied dance for ten years.

She was teaching ballet at a summer arts program in Connecticut when she was approached by the program's acting instructor, who asked her to perform a monologue in the final production.

She read a monologue from the play Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley.

She said, "It was that moment, performing that monologue, that made me think, 'Maybe this is what I wanna do'."