You may know her from multiple nominated and SAG Award winning portrayal of ADA Sylvia Costas Sipowitz in NYPD Blue, as a stay-at-home prostitute in Desperate Housewives and a murderous realtor on Monk, as a serial killer on Law and Order:SVU, coming to terms with her long lost daughter on Rizzoli & Isles, bantering with Alfred Molina on Ladies Man or beating up Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Sharon grew up in Charlotte and Raleigh North Carolina, graduated form UNC-CH with a degree in Journalism and spent her college summers doing musicals in summer stock. She became an Actors Equity Member in 1984 and a SAG-AFTRA member in 1987. Recent work includes Blunt Talk opposite Sir Patrick Stewart and an arc on NBC's upcoming series Game Of Silence. Recent film includes Solace opposite Sir Anthony Hopkins, Of Music and Mind with Joaquim De Almeda and Aunjanue Ellis and award winning The Bridge Partner with Beth Grant. An accomplished stage actress, Sharon played twenty different women in the Coward cabaret Love, Noel at the Wallis. At the Pasadena Playhouse she starred in Noel Coward's final play, A Song at Twilight and as Vivian Leigh in Orson's Shadow -. At the Taper she created the role of Maureen in the premier of Theresa Rebeck's Poor Behavior and was featured Carl Reiner's gala Enter Laughing. Broadway credits include Cabaret, Fiddler On The Roof and as Velma Kelly in Chicago. Former Chair of Women In Film Foundation; serves on the Board of Directors of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, WeForShe.org, HealTheBay.org and UNC-Chapel Hill General Alumni Association Twitter-@sharonlawrence
Daughter of WRAL-TV reporter/anchor Tom Lawrence
(May 2002) She married Dr. Tom Apostle in the same Los Angeles Greek Church where her "NYPD Blue" character, "Sylvia", married Detective Andy Sipowitz.
Go out there and see where the world needs your touch. That kind of,meaning not only makes you feel more connected to your environment on a,local scale, but also to yourself - whether you can operate from,something beyond the definition that others might place on you.
Florence Nightingale was an amazing figure. She created the American Red,Cross. She saw the suffering from bad health conditions on the,battlefield and in the military hospitals, and she fought like crazy to,change the conditions; to make sure that the doctors washed their hands,and practiced sanitary measures. She put herself at great risks.
You are an athlete if you are a dancer.
I was comfortable in my thirties playing the romantic partner, the hero,that saves the day, or the woman who is facing a world that revolves,around younger kid actors.
Technology has already opened the door a bit wider for filmmakers, with,smaller digital cameras making production less cumbersome. Social media,is allowing self-distribution, and girl groups like Spark Summit are,leading the way in calling for fewer Photoshop image alterations of,girls in print media.
You always get things that teach you and steps to grow, but there is a,confidence that is gained and a deep understanding of what it means to,be supported by your knowledge - not by some team that is there to,create confidence; it is there within you. That takes time. That takes,teachers. That takes taking risks.
I would like to go back and spend a Christmas with my family and myself,when I was five years old and just see what that dynamic would be like.
Observe it. I think it would be a magical gift.
Because I was a dancer when I was a kid, I have so much empathy for,these young girls who are so drawn to something lovely in music and in,movement, and yet they encounter a world full of judgment and criticism,of 11-year-old artists and bodies.
I was interested in working on a show that was driven by women.
My problem is: as a singer and a dancer, if I get it in my body one way,it is harder for me to be open to something new - to something else; to,something that is really organically connected to the piece and not,just to my perception of it.
Women remain dramatically under-represented as characters in film when,compared to their representation in the U. S. population.
You always get things that teach you and steps to grow, but there is a confidence that is gained and a deep understanding of what it means to be supported by your knowledge - not by some team that is there to create confidence; it is there within you. That takes time. That takes teachers. That takes taking risks. .
