Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, director, and activist. She is best known for her role as Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City (1998-2004), its sequel movies Sex and the City (2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010), and its sequel series And Just Like That… (2021-).
Nixon was born and raised in Manhattan, New York. She began acting professionally in 1979 at the age of 12, making regular appearances in movies, TV shows, and stage productions through the 1980s and 1990s before starring as Miranda in Sex and the City. For this role, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2004. Other awards for her work include another Emmy, two Tony Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Grammy.
In 2018, Nixon campaigned to become Governor of New York State, challenging the incumbent governor Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic Party nomination. Her campaign focused on income inequality, renewable energy, universal healthcare, stopping mass incarceration, and the rights of undocumented children. She lost the Democratic primary election to Cuomo, who went on to win the election for Governor.
Nixon has been a longtime campaigner for LGBT rights, particularly for marriage equality and transgender rights. She was awarded the Vita Russo Award by GLAAD in 2010, and the Visibility Award by the Human Rights Campaign in 2018.
Nixon has previously been in relationships with men, including a 15-year relationship with photographer Danny Mozes, her high-school classmate. They had two children together before splitting up in 2003. On Trans Day of Action in 2018, Nixon revealed that their eldest son Samuel, known as “Seph”, is transgender.
Nixon met her future wife, education activist Christine Marinoni, in 2001, before they started dating in 2004. They announced their engagement at a rally for marriage equality in 2009 and had a son together in 2011 before marrying in 2012.
Regarding her sexuality, Nixon told The Telegraph in 2007:
In terms of sexual orientation I don’t really feel I’ve changed. I don’t feel there was a hidden part of my sexuality that I wasn’t aware of. I’d been with men all my life, and I’d never fallen in love with a woman. But when I did, it didn’t seem so strange. I’m just a woman in love with another woman.
In a 2012 statement to The Advocate, she identified as bi:
While I don't often use the word, the technically precise term for my orientation is bisexual. I believe bisexuality is not a choice, it is a fact.
Later, in 2018, she identified herself as queer in an interview with Attitude:
Falling in love with my wife was one of the great delights and surprises of my life, but it didn’t seem like I became a whole new person, or like some door had been unlocked. [...] It was like: “I have fallen in love with different people in my life and they’ve all been men before. Now, this is a woman and she is amazing.” So I feel like ‘queer’ is an umbrella term, and it includes my formerly straight self, too.