Biography

Deborah Geffner's first film role was in Bob Fosse's Bob Fosse's Oscar-winning film Que le spectacle commence... (1979). Fosse plucked her out of the Broadway company of "A Chorus Line" to play Victoria opposite Roy Scheider in this Oscar winning film classic. She is famous among action thriller fans for playing Robert Ginty's sexy love interest in "Exterminator ." And recently Deborah made Mia Goth squirm as the casting director she needs to impress in "MaXXXine," Ti West's latest addition to his acclaimed trilogy.

She plays the crisis counselor reading Jennifer Aniston the riot act in the series "The Morning Show," and she can be seen in "American Horror Story," "How to Get Away With Murder," "Scandal," "Mad Men," "The Young and the Restless," "Grey's Anatomy," "ER," "Monk," and "Criminal Minds," among others.

Deborah has loved acting ever since the age of five when she got called to fill in at the last minute when the actor playing the little boy in "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" at Carnegie Mellon University got the measles on opening night. She got to wear pancake makeup and say lines and eat cookies on stage, and got to hear applause for the first time. Her delight in theater was renewed every Saturday afternoon when she and her cousin, Jeff Goldblum, would go see the children's plays at the Pittsburgh Playhouse.

Growing up, she studied dance at Pittsburgh Ballet Theater. At sixteen she was accepted into Juilliard. While in New York, she studied at HB Studios and with acting teachers Larry Moss and Sam Schacht. She acted on Broadway in Pal Joey, and for two and a half years as Kristine in the original production of A Chorus Line, leaving for six months in the middle to film Que le spectacle commence... (1979).

Moving to Los Angeles, Deborah studied with Peggy Feury, Peter Flood, The Groundlings, and Richard Seyd. Soon after arriving, she was cast as a series regular in the pilot episode of "Century Hill," which she loved, even though it never aired. She starred in the TV-movie Legs (1983), playing a Radio City Music Hall Rockette, and got to dance with the Rockettes and act with one of her childhood idols, Gwen Verdon. While she was filming "Legs" in Manhattan, her boyfriend flew in from LA and proposed to her in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge, the day after a memorable Valentine's Day snowstorm shut down the city. They were married for 35 years. She went on to act in many TV series, movies, commercials, and on stage.

She began writing, directing, and producing her own projects as well. She wrote, directed, and starred in the award winning short film "Guitar Lessons." In 2012 she had the pleasure of directing her daughter, Jesse Holcomb, in the world premiere of "Jennifer Aniston Stole My Life" by Jon Courie, chosen for Best of Fringe at the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

She is an accomplished voice actor, voicing mothers-on-the-phone (Andrew Garfield's in Under The Silver Lake, and President Obama's grandmother in the Sundance pick Southside With You,) as well as cult leaders, mayors, crazed fairies, and horror queens in podcast series like "The Phenomenon" and "The Unseen World."

She still loves singing and dancing, telling and listening to great stories, rescuing dogs and cats, laughing with her two amazing daughters, and drinking hot cocoa.

- IMDb mini biography by: Deborah Geffner