Holland Taylor

Taylor has been in a relationship with actress Sarah Paulson since 2015. The two first met at a dinner party around 2006, and Paulson confirmed their relationship in 2016. Taylor later described herself as gay and said that most of her relationships had been with women.

Taylor and Paulson have a 31-year age difference. Taylor has no children.

Taylor began her professional career in theater after studying drama at Bennington College. Her first Broadway credit was in The Devils in 1965. She later appeared in productions including Butley, We Interrupt This Program..., The Cocktail Hour, and Moose Murders.

Her breakthrough television role came as Ruth Dunbar, Tom Hanks's boss, on the sitcom Bosom Buddies. She went on to star in The Powers That Be and The Naked Truth, and appeared in The Edge of Night, All My Children, The L Word, and Mr. Mercedes.

Taylor won the 1999 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for playing Judge Roberta Kittleson on The Practice. She received further Emmy nominations for portraying Evelyn Harper on Two and a Half Men and Ellen Kincaid in Hollywood.

Taylor's film credits include Romancing the Stone, The Jewel of the Nile, Alice, To Die For, One Fine Day, George of the Jungle, The Truman Show, Happy Accidents, Keeping the Faith, and The Wedding Date.

She played Professor Elspeth Stromwell in the 2001 comedy Legally Blonde, appeared as Rose Holbrook in Baby Mama, and later had roles in Gloria Bell, Bill & Ted Face the Music, The Stand In, and Quiz Lady. She also voiced Prudence in Cinderella II: Dreams Come True and Cinderella III: A Twist in Time.

Taylor wrote and starred in Ann, a one-woman play about former Texas governor Ann Richards. The production was developed through workshops and engagements in Texas, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., before opening on Broadway in 2013. Her performance earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play.

A filmed version of Ann was recorded at Austin's Zach Theatre, and Taylor returned to the role for a 2022 West Coast production at the Pasadena Playhouse. Her later theater credits include the Broadway revival of The Front Page, the Manhattan Theatre Club production of Ripcord, and the 2024 off-Broadway production N/A.

Taylor attended Westtown School, a Quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania, and graduated from Bennington College in 1964. She moved to New York City after college to pursue a career as an actress.

Her mother, Virginia Davis Taylor, was a painter, and her father, C. Tracy Taylor, was an attorney. She has two older sisters, Patricia and Pamela.