Debra Lynn Messing was born on August 15, 1968, in Brooklyn, New York. Her father, Brian Messing, was a jewelry sales executive. Her mother, Sandy Messing, is a real estate agent who also worked as a singer. She had one older brother, Brett. When she was three years old the family moved to East Greenwich near Providence, Rhode Island, and it was there that she spent her formative years.
Messing was attracted to the performing arts at an early age. She acted and sang in numerous school productions and played the lead in the musical Annie, also taking formal lessons in acting, singing, and dancing. She also won the Rhode Island Junior Miss beauty pageant in 1986.
After graduating from high school Messing went on to study theater arts at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, and then progressed to the prestigious Graduate Acting Program at New York University, where she got a master's degree in fine arts. Messing’s first major acting role was in a production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America: Perestroika.
The attention she received for this won her a recurring role in the TV series NYPD Blue, alongside Dennis Franz and David Caruso. However, she never gave up theater and has also appeared in productions of The Naked Truth, Four Dogs and a Bone, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Donald Margulies' Pulitzer-nominated Collected Stories.
Messing's first film role came in 1995 with A Walk in the Clouds, which also starred Keanu Reeves and Anthony Quinn. She since appeared in several features including The Mothman Prophecies, with Richard Gere and Laura Linney; Along Came Polly, with Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston; and The Wedding Date, with Dermot Mulroney and Amy Adams. In 1988 Messing enjoyed a small role in Woody Allen's Celebrity, with Winona Ryder, Melanie Griffith, and Kenneth Branagh. In 2004 she contributed voice work to Garfield opposite Bill Murray's laconic ginger cat.
The core of Messing's career has always been in television. In 1994 she won the lead role in sitcom Ned and Stacey, opposite Thomas Haden Church. The show ran for two seasons, after which she made two appearances in Seinfeld before taking the lead role in science fiction series Prey, which also starred Adam Storke and Larry Drake.
However, it is as the long-suffering heroine of Will & Grace, starring alongside Eric McCormack, Megan Mullally, and Sean Hayes, that she really made her mark. She won the role despite stiff competition from future Desperate Housewives star Nicollette Sheridan, who later appeared in the series as her romantic rival. Will & Grace was hugely popular and ran for eight seasons, winning Messing an Emmy as well as three further Emmy nominations and numerous other awards.
When not busy with her career, Messing concentrates on charity work, involving herself with fundraising projects for AmFar, Gay Men's Health Crisis, and Best Friends Pet Sanctuary.
Messing is married to actor and screenwriter Daniel Zelman, whom she met in college. The couple has a young son, Roman Walker Zelman. They live in Los Angeles but are currently planning to return to Messing's original home of New York City. Messing also owns three homes in London.
YUDDY
