Early life

Ivey was born in El Paso, Texas, the daughter of Nathan Aldean Ivey, a college instructor and dean and Dorothy Lee (née Lewis), a teacher.

She spent 1965-68 in Dowagiac, Michigan, where she attended Union High School through tenth grade. She graduated from Marion High School in Marion, Illinois in 1970, and is an alumna of John A. Logan College, Southern Illinois University (Carbondale), and Illinois State University (Normal, Illinois).

Career

Despite a long history of theater and film performances, Ivey is often associated with her one-year run as B.J. Poteet on Designing Women (1992-93), replacing Julia Duffy, who had replaced Delta Burke in 1991. She appeared on Will & Grace as the mother of Dr. Leo Markus. She has also appeared on Grey's Anatomy, Person of Interest, White Collar, Nurse Jackie, Big Love, and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.

Ivey won two Tony Awards as Best Featured Actress in a Play for Steaming in 1983 and Hurlyburly in 1985. She was also nominated for Park Your Car in Harvard Yard in 1992 and a revival of The Heiress in 2013. Other Broadway theatre credits include Piaf, Bedroom Farce, Blithe Spirit, Voices in the Dark, and Follies.

She portrayed Amanda in The Glass Menagerie at the Long Wharf Theatre and reprised the role in March 2010 at the Roundabout Theatre in New York, as well as the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. She received the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Actress for that portrayal. Ivey portrayed Ann Landers in the solo play The Lady With All the Answers at the Cherry Lane Theatre (off-Broadway) in October 2009.She was nominated for Best Solo Performance for the Lucille Lortel Award and Drama Desk Award.

Ivey has appeared in numerous films, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Miles from Home, Compromising Positions, Harry & Son, The Woman in Red, Sister, Sister, In Country, Hello Again, The Lonely Guy, There Goes the Neighborhood, The Devil's Advocate, What Alice Found, and Flags of Our Fathers.

Other television roles include starring roles as Kate McCrorey in the 1990-91 series Down Home, set in a Texas coastal town, Alexandra Buchanan in the short-lived series The 5 Mrs. Buchanans, and "Buddies" with Dave Chappelle. Ivey was also in the 1985 TV remake of The Long Hot Summer, in the role of Noel Varner (Joanne Woodward's role in the 1958 film version). The miniseries also starred Jason Robards and Don Johnson. Ivey was nominated for an Emmy for her performance in What the Deaf Man Heard, a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation. She also provided the voice of Eleanor Sherman in the animated series The Critic. Ivey appeared in the television miniseries Rose Red (based on a Stephen King novel) as Cathy, one of the psychics investigating a haunted house.

Personal life

Ivey was married to actor Ricardo Gutierrez; they divorced before her move to New York. She is now married to Tim Braine and the couple has two children.

Stage directing credits

• Vanities: A New Musical
• Fugue - Cherry Lane Theatre, off-Broadway
• Southern Comforts - Primary Stages, off-Broadway
• Secrets of a Soccer Mom - Snapple Theatre (Off-Broadway)
• Bad Dates - Northlight Repertory Theatre, Chicago
• Bad Dates - Laguna Playhouse
• Steel Magnolias - Alley Theatre
• More - Union Square Theatre, off-Broadway
• More - Falcon Theatre, Los Angeles
• "The Butcher of Baraboo- Second Stage Theatre, NYC
• Two for the Seesaw - Westport Playhouse
• The Go-For-It Guy - Aspen Comedy Festival
• Soccer Moms - Fleetwood Stage
• Carapace - The Alliance Theatre, Atlanta
• Our Suburb - Theatre J, Washington, DC
• Steel Magnolias - The Alliance Theatre, Atlanta

[ Source: Wikipedia ]