Jessica Hecht (born 1965/1966) is an American actress and singer known for her roles as Gretchen Schwartz on Breaking Bad, Susan Bunch on Friends, Carol on The Boys, and Karen on Special. She is also known for her expansive work on Broadway, earning Tony Award nominations for her roles in A View from the Bridge (2010) and Summer, 1976 (2023).
Early life and education
Hecht was born in Princeton, New Jersey. When she was three, she moved with her parents and sister to Bloomfield, Connecticut. After her parents divorced, her mother married psychiatrist Howard Iger, and they raised Jessica and her sisters Elizabeth and Andrea, and her brother, Russell. Hecht attended Connecticut College for a year and a half before graduating from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts in 1987 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama.
Hecht was raised in a culturally Jewish family, with a secular socialist father, but nonetheless expressed interest in religion and had a Bat Mitzvah. She has stated that she is Reconstructionist Jewish and "fairly spiritual".
Career
Hecht has appeared in numerous television series, including Dickinson, Bored to Death, Red Oaks, Jessica Jones, The Loudest Voice, and Succession. In 2020 she played Sonya Barzel on The Sinner, and was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Series in 2019 for her role as Karen in the Netflix series Special. She is known for her roles as Gretchen Schwartz on Breaking Bad (5 episodes) and Susan Bunch, the wife of Ross Geller's ex-wife Carol Willick, on Friends (12 episodes). She was also a featured cast member in the Jonathan Silverman sitcom The Single Guy.
Hecht had the supporting role of Amy Burns in the comedy drama Dan in Real Life (2007), with Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche. She also appeared in Whatever Works, Sideways, and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
At the 2010 Tony Awards, she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play, for her role in A View from the Bridge. In 2012, she performed on Broadway with Jim Parsons in Harvey. In 2016, she played Golde in the 2015 Bartlett Sher-directed revival of Fiddler on the Roof at the Broadway Theatre, and was in The Price with Mark Ruffalo, in 2017. At the 2018 Obie Awards for Off-Broadway productions, she won the Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress for her performance in Admissions at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. At the 2023 Tony Awards, she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, for her role in Summer, 1976.
In 2017, she and producer Jenny Gersten founded The Campfire Project, a theatre based wellness project that creates plays in refugee camps.
Personal life
Hecht has been married to director Adam Bernstein since August 1995. The couple has two children together, Stella and Carlo, who were both teenagers as of 2013.
