Camryn Manheim is best known for her Emmy Award-winning and Golden Globe Award-winning role as Ellenor Frutt on the critically acclaimed legal drama The Practice. In addition to this signature role, she has appeared in a wide range of CBS shows and other network programs, including Ghost Whisperer, Person of Interest, Criminal Minds, Major Crimes, Chicago Hope, and Extant. Her presence on these programs helped solidify her status as a prominent figure in American television drama.

Education and Early Life

Born on March 8, 1961, in Caldwell, New Jersey, Camryn Manheim was raised in Peoria, Illinois. Her mother was a teacher, and her father, Jerome Manheim, was a professor of mathematics. Raised in a Jewish household, she developed an interest in acting during high school while working at a Renaissance fair. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, followed by a Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Manheim also teaches and lectures across the United States and internationally.

Stage Work and Breakthrough with One-Woman Show

While attending NYU, Manheim studied American Sign Language and worked as an interpreter and job coach while pursuing acting. Her fluency in sign language would later become a significant asset in both film and stage work. Early in her career, she collaborated in New York City with distinguished theater artists such as Tony Kushner and Michael Mayer. Her New York stage debut was in Kushner’s play Hydriotaphia. She performed in acclaimed venues including the New York Shakespeare Festival, Lincoln Center, Yale Repertory Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, the Atlantic Theater, Classic Stage Company, and Second Stage Theater.

Her breakthrough came in 1994 with her one-woman off-Broadway show Wake Up, I’m Fat, which she later adapted into a book published in 1999. This production brought significant attention to her talent and led to her long-running role on The Practice, which aired from 1997 to 2004. For her performance, she received the 1998 Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.