Holly Twyford

Holly Twyford is a Washington, D.C.–based American stage actress and director. She is a ten-time nominee and a four-time winner of the Helen Hayes Award.

Early life and career Twyford grew up in Great Falls, Virginia. She attended the School of Theatre Arts at Boston University's School of Theatre Arts before returning to the D.C. area to pursue acting. Before her theatre career was established, she worked as a bartender and in the costume department of the renowned Arena Stage, where she would later star. She commonly collaborates with director Joe Banno on offbeat productions of Shakespeare plays, including a 1999 version of Hamlet at the Folger in which Twyford, along with three others, portrayed the protagonist as a fractured personality.

Twyford is a lesbian and has been out for her entire career. She had been with her partner, an environmentalist, since 1992.

In a 2005 group interview with director Delia Taylor and playwright Jeanette Buck for Metro Weekly, she said that she didn't feel her homosexuality had hindered her career, but that the necessity of coming out to coworkers when starting a new job "gets to be real tiring". In the same interview, she and her colleagues also discussed the paucity of female roles and the need for more female directors, playwrights and producers in both the theatre industry and Hollywood.

Helen Hayes Awards 1993 Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Musical Her Aching Heart, Consenting Adults Theatre Company Nomination 1998 Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Play Romeo and Juliet, Folger Shakespeare Library Award Recipient 1999 Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Play Much Ado About Nothing, Folger Shakespeare Library Nomination 1999 Outstanding Supporting Actress, Resident Play Steward of Christendom, The Studio Theatre Nomination 2000 Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Play Desk Set, The Studio Theatre Nomination 2001 Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Play Chesapeake, Source Theatre Nomination 2003 Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Play Oleanna, Source Theatre Nomination 2003 Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Play The Shape of Things, The Studio Theatre Award Recipient 2005 Outstanding Supporting Actress, Resident Play Two Gentlemen of Verona, Folger Shakespeare Library Award Recipient 2009 Outstanding Supporting Actress, Resident Play The Road to Mecca, The Studio Theatre Nomination 2010 Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Play Arcadia, The Folger Theatre Nomination 2010 Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident PlayThe Little Dog Laughed, Signature TheatreAward Recipient 2010 Outstanding Lead Actress, Resident Play Lost in Yonkers, Theater J Nomination