Ann Dowd

About

Ann Dowd (born January 30, 1956) is an American actress. She has appeared in numerous films, including Green Card (1990), Lorenzo’s Oil (1992), Philadelphia (1993), Garden State (2004), The Manchurian Candidate (2004), Marley & Me (2008), Compliance (2012), Side Effects (2013), St. Vincent (2014), Captain Fantastic (2016), Hereditary (2018), and Mass (2021). For Compliance, she won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. For Mass, she earned nominations for a British Academy Film Award and a Critics’ Choice Award.
Dowd was a series regular on the HBO series The Leftovers (2014–2017), for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. She played Aunt Lydia Clements on the Hulu series The Handmaid’s Tale (2017–2025), for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

Ann Dowd was born on January 30, 1956, in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Her brother, John Dowd Jr., is president of The Dowd Agencies, an insurance company started by their great-grandfather. Dowd’s sister, Elizabeth Dowd, is a developmental therapist and parenting coach; sister…