Jessica Hecht

Biography:

Jessica Hecht (born June 28, 1965) is an American actress known for her roles as Gretchen Schwartz on Breaking Bad, Susan Bunch on Friends, Carol on The Boys, and Karen on Special. She has also had an extensive Broadway career, earning Tony Award nominations for A View from the Bridge (2010) and Summer, 1976 (2023).

Hecht was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and moved to Bloomfield, Connecticut, at the age of three. After her parents divorced, her mother remarried psychiatrist Howard Iger, who helped raise Jessica and her siblings. She initially attended Connecticut College before transferring to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she graduated with a BFA in drama in 1987.

Raised in a culturally Jewish household with a secular socialist father, Hecht nonetheless pursued an interest in religion and had a Bat Mitzvah. She identifies as Reconstructionist Jewish and considers herself “fairly spiritual.”

Hecht has appeared in numerous TV series, including Dickinson, Bored to Death, Red Oaks, Jessica Jones, The Loudest Voice, and Succession. In 2020, she played Sonya Barzel in The Sinner and was nominated for an Emmy for her role as Karen in Netflix’s Special (2019).

She is widely recognized for playing Gretchen Schwartz in Breaking Bad and Susan Bunch, the wife of Ross Geller’s ex-wife Carol Willick, in Friends. Additionally, she was a main cast member in the sitcom The Single Guy.

Her film credits include Dan in Real Life (2007) alongside Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche, as well as Whatever Works, Sideways, and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

On Broadway, Hecht has been a prominent figure, earning a Tony nomination in 2010 for A View from the Bridge. She starred alongside Jim Parsons in Harvey (2012) and played Golde in the Bartlett Sher-directed revival of Fiddler on the Roof (2016). In 2017, she appeared in The Price with Mark Ruffalo.

For her performance in Admissions at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, Hecht won an Obie Award for Distinguished Performance in 2018. She was nominated for another Tony Award in 2023 for Summer, 1976.

In 2017, Hecht co-founded The Campfire Project with producer Jenny Gersten, a theater-based wellness initiative creating plays in refugee camps.

Hecht has been married to director Adam Bernstein since August 1995. They have two children, Stella and Carlo.