Gail O’Grady is an award-winning actress who is best known for her acclaimed role as Donna Abandando on the hit series, “NYPD Blue.” O’Grady starred in the series for three years, from 1993 to 1996, garnering her three Primetime Emmy® Award Nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 1995.
Originally hailing from Detroit, Michigan, O’Grady got her start in acting with commercials, including a famous Pepsi commercial she filmed with Michael J. Fox in 1989. Some of her early television work included roles on “Werewolf,” “China Beach,” “Cheers,” “Matlock,” “Murder She Wrote,” “Designing Women,” “Silk Stalkings,” “Burke’s Law” and “Promised Land.”
After finding success on “NYPD Blue,” O’Grady went on to star in several other series, receiving acclaim for her many varied roles and performances. Most notably, she starred for three seasons on the Emmy®-Award winning drama “American Dreams,” in which she played matriarch Helen Pryor alongside Tom Verica and Brittany Snow. O’Grady also had recurring roles on “Monk,” “Boston Legal” and “Desperate Housewives,” and guest-starring roles on numerous hit series, including “Las Vegas,” “CSI,” “Ghost Whisperer,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Hellcats,” “Drop Dead Diva,” “Necessary Roughness” and “Hawaii Five-O.”
O’Grady is also no stranger to film. She has starred in several made-for-TV movies, including the Hallmark Channel Original Movies “All I Want for Christmas” and “Living Out Loud,” the Hallmark Movie Channel Original “After the Fall, CBS’s “Mayday,” Lifetime Network’s “While the Children Sleep” and “Swimming Lessons,” and USA’s “The Hostage Negotiator,” among many others. Her feature film credits include “Three Amigos,” “Blackout,” “The Josephine Baker Story,” “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,” “Hope Ranch” and “An American Carol.”
In 1996, People magazine named O’Grady as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world. She has one child, a son, and resides in Los Angeles.
