Amy Brenneman

Though she hailed from a family steeped in the law, actress Amy Brenneman displayed her natural gifts for performing at an early age. After spending several years in a traveling company that performed classic plays in small towns across America, Brenneman made a name for herself with a memorable, but ultimately short-lived stint as a morally ambiguous cop on the gritty "NYPD Blue" (ABC, 1993-2005). She parlayed that early success into several feature roles; most notably in the crime thriller "Heat" (1995), before returning to the small screen for "Judging Amy" (CBS, 1999-2005), a legal drama partially based on her mother's life and career that Brenneman helped create and produce. Over the course of six seasons, Brenneman received consistent critical acclaim, as well as a few Emmy Award nominations. Despite continued work in features, including a noted performance as part of the ensemble cast in "Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her" (Showtime, 2001), Brenneman was a prominent regular on shows like "Private Practice" (ABC, 2007-13), where she made the greatest strides of her career.