Polly Draper may be turning 71 today, but for her biggest fans she will always be Thirtysomething.
Born June 15, 1955, in Gary, Indiana, the future star was raised in Chicago, as well as Arlington and Palo Alto, California, as the daughter of high-achieving parents (seriously, her mom was a Peace Corps administrator and her father CEO of the United Nations, per IMDb). She’s a middle child with two siblings, and as a highly sociable Gemini, she forged her own path, ultimately earning an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
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View this post on InstagramFollowing graduation, she started her acting career on the stage, performing in New York’s off-Broadway and regional theater productions, where she was awarded New York Magazine’s Best Broadway Actress Award for Four Dogs and a Bone.
Transitioning to television in 1981, Draper appeared on the daytime soap opera Another World, with the guest spot leading to more opportunities before she landed her big break on the groundbreaking ABC drama created by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, Thirtyomething.
The defining portrait of Gen X followed a group of Philadelphia friends navigating adulthood, parenthood, and youthful idealism. It ran for four seasons, from 1987 to 1991, and won 13 Primetime Emmy Awards during its time, with one of those trophies going to Draper.
As Ellyn Warren, the raspy-voiced childhood best friend of lead character Hope Steadman (Mel Harris), Draper tackled heavy, complex storylines for TV at the time, bringing levity and humanity to taboos subjects such as infidelity, sex, and the pressures of being a single career-driven woman without kids. Her efforts earned her an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 1988.
Since that defining role, Draper has continued to build upon her entertainment career as a screenwriter (The Tic Code, 1998), showrunner (The Naked Brothers Band, 2007-09), director (The Naked Brothers Band: the Movie, 2005), and producer (Stella's Last Weekend, 2018). She even won a Writers Guild of America Award for the hit Nickelodeon series The Naked Brothers Band.
More than three decades after Thirtysomething, Draper is still going strong -- and still looking amazing while she’s at it. After appearing on some of the small screen’s biggest recent hits, including HBO Max’s Hacks, Netflix’s Forever, and Showtime’s Billions, Draper shows no signs of hitting the breaks.
View this post on InstagramDeadline recently announced she’s starring alongside Richard Kind (A Serious Man), Paul Raci (Sound of Metal), and Tovah Feldshuh (Nobody Wants This) in the indie comedy film Not Dead Yet, slated to premiere in 2027.
Time flies when you’re adulting. Here’s wishing Draper the best birthday ever!
Related: Genius Behind Some of Rock’s Most Beloved Anthems Turns 81
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