Ryan began her professional stage career in 1987 and made her Broadway debut in 1993 as a replacement in the original production of The Sisters Rosensweig. She went on to receive Tony Award nominations for Best Featured Actress in a Play for the 2000 revival of Uncle Vanya and the 2005 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Helene McCready in the 2007 film Gone Baby Gone. The role also earned her a Golden Globe nomination and won her a Critics\' Choice Award. Her other films include Changeling (2008), Win Win (2011) and Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014). On television, she played Beadie Russell in HBO\'s The Wire (2002–08), Holly Flax in NBC\'s The Office (2008–11) and Adele Brousse in HBO\'s In Treatment (2010).\n', '

Ryan was born Amy Beth Dziewiontkowski in New York City’s Queens borough in the Flushing neighborhood, the daughter of Pamela (née Ryan), a nurse, and John Dziewiontkowski, a trucking business owner. She is of Polish, Irish, and English descent. Growing up in the 1970s, Ryan and her sister Laura delivered the Daily News by bike. At a young age, Ryan attended the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Center in upstate New York. At 17, she graduated from New York\'s High School of Performing Arts. Hired for the national tour of Biloxi Blues right out of high school, Ryan worked steadily off-Broadway for the next decade. She chose her mother\'s maiden name as her stage name.\n', '

Ryan made her off-Broadway debut in the Westside Theatre\'s 1987 production of A Shayna Maidel, playing the role of Hanna. The following year she was seen in the Second Stage Theatre Company\'s revival of The Rimers of Eldritch. Additional off-Broadway credits include As Bees In Honey Drown, Crimes of the Heart and Saved. She also worked in regional theater, where she originated roles in new plays by Neil LaBute, Arthur Miller and Neil Simon. On Broadway she has appeared as Tess in The Sisters Rosensweig, Natasha in the 1997 revival of The Three Sisters, and Peggy in the 2001–2002 revival of The Women.\n', '

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