Biography

Gracie, OBIE, and Drama Desk winner Donna Lynne Champlin is best known for her role as the beloved "Paula Proctor" on the CW's Emmy award winning TV show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and as "Detective Nikki Henry" on the NETFLIX mini-series The Perfect Couple where critics hailed Champlin as "impeccable", "first rate" and a "dead pan scene-stealer".

Champlin graduated with a High Honors BFA from Carnegie Mellon University. A Princess Grace Foundation award winner and a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, she also received intensive training in Shakespeare and Chekhov at Oxford University on the Advanced Acting Scholarship and The Vira I. Heinz Grant to study abroad.

Her Broadway debut in 2000 as "Mary Jane" in James Joyce's The Dead was quickly followed by another Broadway turn as "Honoria Glossop" in the Alan Ayckbourn/Andrew Lloyd Webber musical By Jeeves in 2001. In 2002, came the opportunity to work with Carol Burnett and Hal Prince in Broadway's Hollywood Arms - the dramatization of Carol's biography One More Time, in which Champlin played the iconic comedienne. Critics across the country proclaimed Champlin a "show-stopping star in the making" and described her performance as "brilliant", "a triumph", and "a tour de force." Next on Broadway, Champlin played "Pirelli" (and the accordion, flute, and piano) in the groundbreaking 2005 revival of Sweeney Todd where the press called her both "hilarious" and "superb". She then joined the Broadway company of Billy Elliot as "Lesley" in 2009 and simultaneously self-produced her solo debut CD "Old Friends" which was voted "One of the Best Ten Albums of 2009" and was hailed by critics as "brilliant", "a masterpiece" and "breath taking".

She can also be heard as the voice of many animated characters on shows like Batman: Caped Crusader, Centaurworld, Star Vs the Forces of Evil and Baby Shark's Big Show! and on numerous cast albums and including See Rock City, Sweeney Todd, By Jeeves, 3hree and My Life with Albertine . Her film credits include Birdman, Downsizing, Yes God Yes, A Secret Promise, The Audition, The Dark Half, By Jeeves, and Five Questions. Her TV credits include Feel the Beat, The First Lady, Another Period, The Good Doctor, The Good Fight, The Good Wife, Submissions Only, Law and Order, Mother's Day, The (54th and 60th) Annual Tony Awards on CBS, The View, Poetry of America, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Regis and Kelly and Emily Dickinson of the PBS Voices and Visions series.

Off Broadway, her performance as "Cora Flood" in the 2009 production of The Dark at The Top of the Stairs at The Transport Group (hailed by the NY press as "perfection", "brilliant" and "a privilege to watch"), earned her the prestigious OBIE award. DL went on to win the 2013 Drama Desk Award for her performance in Working, The Musical at the Prospect Theatre and the NYMF Award for "Outstanding Performance" for not one but three separate productions including as "Jane Austen" in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Other favorite Off-Broadway credits include "Hortensio" opposite Janet McTeer's "Petruchio" in the all-female Taming of the Shrew and "Audrey" opposite Oliver Platt's "Touchstone" in As You Like It (both at The Public Theatre's prestigious Shakespeare in the Park) and "Sophie" in Master Class opposite Edie Falco at the Broadhurst produced by the Metropolitan Opera.

Champlin also continues to perform her critically acclaimed one-woman show Finishing the Hat in NYC across the country while teaching master classes in acting at many prestigious colleges such as CMU, USC, and NYU. Also, of particular importance to Champlin is her fund raising for three of her favorite charitable organizations, Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF), BC-EFA and The Actors' Fund via her Cameo page (cameo.com/dlchamplin).

In addition to being an actress, Donna Lynne also works as a director, writer, producer, stand-up comedienne, pianist, composer, musical director, and choreographer. A free-lance writer for Comedy Central, she is currently working on a solo symphony concert, a play and two books; a humorous non-fiction book inspired by her (mis)adventures in the theatre and the other a 'how-to of comedy'.

Donna Lynne lives in New York City with her husband, actor Andrew Arrow and her son, Charlie.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: The Talent House