Julia Duffy

Julia Duffy is an American actress who started out in stage productions around her native Minneapolis as a teenager and moved to New York City to train at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She broke into television with minor soap opera parts and a role on The Doctors, and in 1978 she appeared on Broadway in Once in a Lifetime. Supporting film work included Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1981) and Cutter's Way (1981). She played Stephanie Vanderkellen on Newhart from 1983 to 1990, a part that earned her seven Primetime Emmy nominations, a Golden Globe nomination, and three Viewers for Quality Television awards. After Newhart she acted on Baby Talk and Designing Women, with later guest spots on Reba and Drake & Josh and recurring roles on Shameless and Looking. Her films include Intolerable Cruelty (2003) and Camp X-Ray (2014), and she wrote Bad Auditions, published in 2018.