Elisabeth Moss
Elisabeth Moss is an acclaimed American actress best known for her compelling performances in television and film. Born on July 24, 1982, in Los Angeles, California, she began her acting career at a young age and gained notable recognition as Zoey Bartlet on the NBC political drama *The West Wing*. Moss achieved further fame for her role as Peggy Olson in the critically acclaimed series *Mad Men*, where she was nominated for multiple Emmy Awards and earned significant praise for her portrayal of a woman navigating a male-dominated advertising industry in the 1960s.
Moss is perhaps most widely recognized for her lead role as Offred in Hulu's *The Handmaid's Tale*, a series that garnered her an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Throughout her career, she has also appeared in various films and television shows, showcasing her versatility as an actress. Beyond her professional life, Moss was previously married to comedian Fred Armisen and is known to be a practicing Scientologist. As of 2024, she announced her pregnancy, although she chose not to disclose the father's identity. Moss continues to captivate audiences with her intense performances and has a significant impact on the entertainment industry.
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Elisabeth Moss
Actor
- Born: July 24, 1982
- Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California
Contribution: Elisabeth Moss is an Emmy Award-winning American actor best known for her roles as Zoey Bartlet on The West Wing, as Peggy Olson on the AMC series Mad Men, and as Offred on the Hulu original series The Handmaid's Tale.
Background
Elisabeth Moss was born on July 24, 1982, in Los Angeles, California, to Ron, an English jazz musician and band manager, and Linda, a professional blues harmonica player. When she was young, Moss studied ballet at the School of American Ballet in New York.
Since she was a child, Moss idolized actor Bette Davis and fostered ambitions of becoming a professional actor herself. In 1990, at the age of seven, she landed her first role, acting in the NBC miniseries Lucky Chances. She continued to act in small roles in television and film throughout the early 1990s, including appearances on the CBS series Picket Fences (1992–95) and the television movie Gypsy (1993).
Moss attended a private school that taught strict academics with no extra curriculum. Because of the intensity of her education, she graduated high school when she was fifteen years old. She was then free to begin pursuing acting full time.
Career
Moss had already acted in a number of films before she graduated from high school, such as Suburban Commando (1991), Imaginary Crimes (1994) and The Last Supper (1995). After making brief appearances in several little-known films and television series, Moss landed a supporting role in the 1999 comedy-drama Mumford, which received mixed reviews.
In 1999, Moss made her mainstream film breakthrough, playing a burn victim in a psychiatric hospital in the hit film adaptation of Girl, Interrupted, starring Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Whoopi Goldberg, and Brittany Murphy. Moss continued her rise to fame when she was cast as Zoey Bartlet, the daughter of the US president, on the NBC political drama The West Wing. Moss remained on the cast of this hugely popular show for its entire run from 1999 to 2006. The role earned her significant national attention.
Between her appearances on The West Wing, Moss appeared in episodes of The Practice (2003), Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005), and Invasion (2005–6). She also began landing both supporting and starring roles in independent films such as Heart of America (2002) and Virgin (2003). In 2007, after The West Wing went off the air, Moss continued to build her résumé with guest spots on popular television shows such as Grey’s Anatomy and Medium. She played a small part in the drama film Day Zero (2007) and starred in the independent horror film The Attic (2008).
Moss’s major break came when she was cast as Peggy Olson on the AMC period drama series Mad Men after auditioning twice for the role. Set on Madison Avenue in New York City during the 1960s, the show focuses on the professional and personal lives of the employees of the advertising agency Sterling Cooper. Moss’s character Peggy initially joins the agency as a hapless and naïve secretary, but through her ambition and hard work, she rises to the post of copywriter in a heavily male-dominated industry.
Mad Men premiered in the summer of 2007 to widespread critical acclaim. Moss’s Peggy Olson earned a more prominent role in the show’s story lines as the seasons progressed. From 2009 to 2013, Moss was nominated for five consecutive Emmy Awards for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series. She also shared in the 2009 and 2010 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards for ensemble in a drama series.
The enormous success of Mad Men made Moss a highly sought-after actor. In 2008, she appeared on Broadway in a revival of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow, a satiric play about the film industry, at the Barrymore Theater in New York. The next year, she played a supporting role in the romantic comedy film Did You Hear about the Morgans? with Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker. She followed this with a starring role in the 2010 independent film A Buddy Story and appeared in the comedy film Get Him to the Greek.
In 2013, Moss played the lead in the BBC miniseries Top of the Lake. Her character, Robin, is a detective investigating a young girl’s disappearance. Critics highly praised the show, especially Moss’s performance. For this role, Moss was nominated for the 2013 Emmy Award for outstanding lead actress in a miniseries or movie and won the 2014 Golden Globe Award for best performance by an actress in a miniseries.
By the time Mad Men ended its run in 2015, Moss had earned another Emmy Award nomination for her role as Peggy Olson. While she went on to appear in films such as High-Rise (2015) and Chuck (2016), her next biggest and most acclaimed role would come in the highly anticipated Hulu original series The Handmaid's Tale, adapted from Margaret Atwood's best-selling 1985 novel of the same name. The dystopian series, with its first season streaming in 2017, has received great critical praise, including for Moss, who stars as Offred, a woman forced into sexual servitude for the sake of procreation. Recognition for her work in the dramatic and controversial series was recognized when she won her first Emmy Award for outstanding lead actress in a drama series that same year for the role. She also won the 2018 Golden Globe for best actress in a television drama. Meanwhile, she had also returned to portray Robin for the second season of Top of the Lake. Moss also returned to The Handmaid's Tale for seasons 3, 4, and 5 of the popular show, and her performance garnered her additional Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG nominations in 2018. Season 6, the final season of the show, was scheduled for release in 2025.
At the same time, Moss kept up a vigorous schedule of film acting. She played Angie Wood in the indie biopic Mad to Be Normal (2017), about the controversial Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing. She went on to portray Masha in an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's play The Seagull and Dorothy in the drama The Old Man & the Gun, both released to critical acclaim in 2018. The following year saw her performances as Kitty Tyler in the acclaimed horror flick Us, Claire Walsh in the panned but popular crime drama The Kitchen, washed-up grunge star Becky in the drama Her Smell, and a mother in the postapocalyptic thriller Light of My Life.
Moss kicked off the 2020s playing pioneering American author Shirley Jackson in Shirley (2020) and starring in the horror movie The Invisible Man (2021). She later appeared as Kirby Mazrachi in the television series Shining Girls (2022) and as Imogen Salter in the miniseries The Veil (2024). Moss broke a vertebrate in her back while filming The Veil, which was filmed in Istanbul. Despite the injury, Moss said she was eager to return to the series if it is renewed for a second season. Some of Moss' other film work included roles in Next Goal Wins (2023) and Shell (2024).
Impact
Moss’s powers of dramatic acting come to her seemingly on cue. She is able to deliver intense, emotional performances and make complex inner struggles look effortless.
Personal Life
Moss married comedic actor Fred Armisen in October 2009. They divorced in May 2011. Moss is a practicing scientologist. Moss announced in 2024 that she was pregnant at the age of forty-one. She chose not to reveal the father's identity.
Bibliography
Brantley, Ben. “Do You Speak Hollywood?” Rev. of Speed-the-Plow, directed by Neil Pepe. The New York Times 24 Oct. 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/theater/reviews/24plow.html. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.
"Elizabeth Moss." IMDb, 2024, www.imdb.com/name/nm0005253. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.
Hawkes, Rebecca. "Emmys 2017: In The Handmaid's Tale, Elisabeth Moss Kicked Us in the Stomach and Won Our Hearts." The Telegraph, 18 Sept. 2017, www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/emmys-2017-handmaids-tale-elisabeth-moss-kicked-us-stomach-won. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.
Moss. Elisabeth. “Elisabeth Moss: ‘How I Found My Inner Tough Guy.’” Interview by Lizzy Goodman. The Guardian, 2 July 2013, www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/jul/02/elisabeth-moss-inner-tough-guy. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.
Moss, Elisabeth. Interview by Phil Hogan. Observer, 24 Jan. 2009, www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/jan/25/elisabeth-moss-interview-mad-men. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.
Moss, Elisabeth. “She’s Nothing Like Peggy, or Is She?” Interview by Brooks Barnes. The New York Times, 5 June 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/arts/television/07barn.html. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.
Oh, Eunice. “Elisabeth Moss Files for Divorce from Fred Armisen.” People, 20 Sept. 2010, people.com/celebrity/elisabeth-moss-files-for-divorce-from-fred-armisen. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.