Early Life
Sullivan was born in the New York City borough of Manhattan, the daughter of Edward C. Sullivan, a New York State assemblyman. She took dance classes at age 7 and performed in Off Broadway and Broadway productions with the First All-Children's Theatre. Sullivan's mother, a business woman, and her father, who represented Manhattan's 69th Assembly District in the New York State Assembly from 1977 to 2002, moved the family upstate to Middleburgh, New York, in 1982. During high school, Nicole was class treasurer throughout her junior year. She played soccer in high school, recorded statistics for the boys’ basketball team and was a member of student council.
After graduating from Middleburgh in 1987, she attended Northwestern University as a theatre major. She studied William Shakespeare, Harold Pinter, Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen and Greek tragedies, while working two jobs to pay her way through college and writing plays and sketches for the student theatre. Sullivan spent her junior year in London, studying at the British American Drama Academy and became a member of the Greenwich Shakespeare Company. Sullivan graduated from Northwestern with honors, and then moved to Los Angeles before getting sporadic guest-starring roles.
Read more about this topic: Nicole Sullivan
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“[In early adolescence] she becomes acutely aware of herself as a being perceived by others, judged by others, though she herself is the harshest judge, quick to list her physical flaws, quick to undervalue and under-rate herself not only in terms of physical appearance but across a wide range of talents, capacities and even social status, whereas boys of the same age will cite their abilities, their talents and their social status pretty accurately.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)
“Nominee. A modest gentleman shrinking from the distinction of private life and diligently seeking the honorable obscurity of public office.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)