Actress Mary Louise Wilson is a writer, playwright and actress who has performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in movies and television.  Off-Broadway credits include BONDS OF INTEREST (1958), DRESSED TO THE NINES (1960), DIME A DOZEN (1962), AN EVENING FOR MERLIN FINCH (1968), WHISPERS ON THE WIND (1970), SISTER MARY IGNATIUS EXPLAINS IT ALL FOR YOU/THE ACTOR’S NIGHTMARE(1982), BABY WITH THE BATHWATER (1983), MACBETH (1989), FLAUBERT’S LATEST (1992), FULL GALLOP (1995/1996), BOSOMS AND NEGLECT (1998), THE BEARD OF AVON (2003), GREY GARDENS(2006), LOVE LOSS AND WHAT I WORE (2009), 4000 MILES (2011/2012).  On Broadway she was seen in Grey Gardens, On The Twentieth Century, The Royal Family, Alice in Wonderland, Flora, the Red Menace, Cabaret, Gypsy, Fools, The Philadelphia Story, The Importance of Being Earnest, among other plays.  Her movies include Klute, King of the Gypsies, Zelig, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The Money Pit, Nebraska, Ocean’s 8, and her television performances include: All My Children, The Sopranos, Frasier, Orange is the New Black, Modern Family, and Mozart In The Jungle.

Mary Louise Wilson grew up in New Orleans where her father was a specialist in the treatment of tuberculosis, taught at Tulane University and was a founding member of the Ochsner Clinic.  Her family expected her to ‘go to Sophie Newcomb College for a year, make her debut, and marry a drunk.’  However, dancing on the top of her family’s table and entertaining friends and family as the ‘clown of the family,’ she learned to express herself joyously in public.  At Northwestern University she discovered ‘she had a brain’ and poured herself into literature and learning.  Once in Manhattan she became a member of Julius Monk’s revues at the Plaza Hotel and performed at Upstairs at the Downstairs as a singer and dancer.  From there her active career both on and off Broadway evolved.  In 1996 Wilson co-authored, with Mark Hampton, a one-woman show about the fashion guru Diana Vreeland called FULL GALLOP, for which she won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance.  She also wrote My First Hundred Years in Show Business: A Memoir (2015), and Theatrical Haiku: Seven Short Plays (2011).  For her performance in GREY GARDENS she was awarded in 2007 a Richard Seff Award and in 2006 nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award, a Drama League Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award.  For her performance in 4000 MILES in 2012 she won an Obie Award and was nominated for a Drama League Award.  On Broadway she won in 2007 a Tony Award for Grey Gardens as Best Actress in a Musical, and was nominated for a Tony in 1998 for her performance in Cabaret.