Amy Landecker

Biography:

Amy Landecker was born on September 30, 1969, in Chicago, Illinois. She is the daughter of well-known Chicago radio host John Records Landecker. Her maternal great-grandfather was attorney Joseph N. Welch, and her paternal grandfather was a German Jewish refugee. She studied theater at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Landecker earned her Screen Actors Guild card after doing a voiceover for a Tampax commercial. Although she only repeated the word “ballet,” she received $10,000 in residuals, an experience she recalls as eye-opening and one that sparked her enthusiasm for voiceover work.

In the early part of her career, she mainly worked on stage productions—among them Rajiv Joseph’s All This Intimacy in 2006—and did not relocate to Los Angeles until she was 38. After moving, she appeared in a variety of films and television shows, including a notable supporting role as Mrs. Samsky in the Coen brothers’ Oscar-nominated film A Serious Man. Her performance drew strong praise, with critic Roger Ebert calling her “perfect” in the role.

In 2011, Landecker joined the cast of NBC’s The Paul Reiser Show, playing Reiser’s wife, Claire. She has made guest appearances on numerous television series, such as Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, NCIS, Curb Your Enthusiasm—where her character begins dating Larry David—Revenge, and others. She has continued performing in Off-Broadway productions as well, including Bug. In 2013, she appeared in the films All Is Bright, Clear History, and Enough Said. The following year, she was cast alongside Jeffrey Tambor and Judith Light in Amazon’s comedy-drama Transparent. She also co-starred in the Michael Bay–produced time-travel film Project Almanac, released in January 2015.

Landecker and her former husband, Jackson Lynch, with whom she shares a daughter, divorced in 2011. In 2015, she began a relationship with actor Bradley Whitford after meeting him on the set of Transparent. The couple became engaged in March 2018 and were married on July 17, 2019.