Nicole Burdette

Nicole Burdette is an American playwright and actress. Born in San Francisco, she attended New York University, where she studied acting, writing, and the humanities, and later earned an MFA in creative writing. In 1986, Burdette helped found the theater company Naked Angels, which staged several of her plays, among them The Bluebird Special Came Through Here, I'd Rather Be Punch Drunk, Busted, and Chelsea Walls. She turned Chelsea Walls into a film directed by Ethan Hawke that premiered at Cannes. Her first screen role was in Angel Heart (1987), and her first major part came in A River Runs Through It (1992), where she acted opposite Brad Pitt in Robert Redford's film. On television, she portrayed Barbara Soprano on The Sopranos from 2000 to 2001. She earned a Best Screenplay Award for Maze at the 2001 Newport Beach Film Festival. Burdette teaches screenwriting and playwriting at The New School for Drama and was nominated for the 2018 Rome Prize.