In Conversation: Cecile Richards & Holland Taylor  | 

Cecile Richards is a national leader for women’s rights and social and economic justice, and a co-founder of Supermajority – a new organization fighting for gender equity. She is the author of New York Times bestseller Make Trouble. As President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund for 12 years, Richards worked to increase affordable access to reproductive health care and to build a healthier and safer world for women and young people. After starting her career as a labor organizer, working with women earning the minimum wage, she went on to start her own grassroots organizations, and later served as Deputy Chief of Staff to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. Richards is a frequent speaker and commentator on politics and progressive issues. She and her husband, Kirk Adams, have three children and live in New York City.

Holland Taylor is an Emmy-winning and Tony-nominated actress and playwright who has been a regular fixture of stage and screen for over four decades.

Most recently, Holland appears on Apple TV’s The Morning Show, as Cybil Richards, steely Chairwoman of the network’s Board – a formidable older woman in power. This role comes on top of her Emmy nomination for Ryan Murphy’s global hit limited series, Hollywood, opposite Patti LuPone, Dylan McDermott, and Jim Parsons, which premiered on Netflix on May 1, 2020.  Holland played veteran studio executive ‘Ellen Kincaid’, whom she imbues with the sort of charm, moxie and quiet power necessary to combat the Golden Age studio system that the series reimagines. 

She also had a major supporting turn in the feature film, Bill & Ted Face the Music, the latest installment in the cult classic film series, in which she stars as ‘The Great Leader’ opposite Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, reprising their iconic performances.  

PBS’s 2020 Great Performances presented a filmed version of Holland’s unforgettable one-woman play, Ann, based on the late Texas Governor Ann Richards, which Holland wrote and starred in across the country and on Broadway, receiving a 2013 Tony Award nomination for ‘Leading Actress in a Play’.  Ann was filmed on its Broadway set at Austin’s Zach Theatre in Ann’s home state of Texas.  It currently streams internationally on BroadwayHD as well as on PBS’ Passport. For Ann’s Broadway engagement at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre, Holland also received Drama Desk and Drama League nominations, and the Outer Circle Critics Award for Best Solo Performance.

In 2021 Holland starred in The Chair, for Netflix, with Sandra Oh and Jay Duplass – the story of the newly appointed female Chair of the Literature Department in a “gray stone” University, and the various professors in her charge. Holland plays Professor Joan Hambling, a distinguished scholar putting up a fight at what seems like the end of the line.  Bob Balaban, Nana Mensah, and David Morse star as fellow professors swirling in the current embroiled climate of higher education. 

Holland won the Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 1999 for her groundbreaking performance as ‘Judge Roberta Kittleson’ on ABC’s legal drama The Practice.  She has received a grand total of eight Emmy nominations during her career, including a second for The Practice, one for her guest appearance on the comedy series The Lot, and her most recent nod for Hollywood.  She received an incredible four nominations for her inspired work on CBS’s #1 sitcom, Two and a Half Men, on which she starred as ‘Evelyn Harper’ for its entire twelve-season run.

Her countless television credits also include the classic comedy Bosom Buddies starring Tom Hanks, the landmark series The L Word, NBC’s sitcom The Naked Truth, and most recently David E. Kelley’s Mr. Mercedes, starring Brendan Gleeson and based on a series of novels by Stephen King.  She also starred in two auspicious Norman Lear projects: The Powers That Be, a short-lived but highly acclaimed political satire; as well as the NBC pilot, Guess Who Died, opposite Hector Elizondo.

Her memorable film roles include Legally Blonde opposite Reese Witherspoon, Peter Weir’s The Truman Show starring Jim Carrey, One Fine Day with George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer, George of the Jungle, Baby Mama  starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, the classics Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile, To Die For starring Nicole Kidman, Next Stop Wonderland, Happy Accidents, Spy Kids 2 & 3, Keeping the Faith, Gloria Bell starring Julianne Moore, and Jay Roach’s Bombshell.  Most recently, she co-starred in Netflix’s hugely popular To all the Boys P.S. I Still Love You.  

A stage veteran, Holland appeared on Broadway in 2016 opposite Nathan Lane and John Slattery in the Tony-nominated revival of The Front Page; she made her Broadway debut in 1965 in the play The Devils.  She also holds the distinction of having appeared in the historic Broadway flop, Moose Murders, having taken over for Eve Arden during previews a mere week before opening (and closing). 

Her New York stage performances also include David Lindsay-Abaire’s dark comedy Ripcord at Manhattan Theatre Club; ‘Bess’ in Breakfast with Les and Bess; and the original productions of Butley, opposite Alan Bates, and A.R. Gurney’s The Cocktail Hour. In Los Angeles, she has performed in Kindertransport, and played opposite Christopher Lloyd in Yasmina Reza’s The Unexpected Man at the Geffen.  She has also narrated for the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Stravinsky’s Persephone for Essa-Pekka Salonen, and for John Adams in Phillip Glass’ Ahknaten.  Maestro John Williams himself was the conductor as she delivered the spoken words in his Harry Potter Suite with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Holland was a dedicated student of Stella Adler, and has given talks about the work and cultural contribution of this great teacher. A proud Philadelphia native, she went to Westtown Friends School, and received her BA at Bennington College. In 2005, she became a student again, earning an MA from the University of Santa Monica.