n a n c y l e e g r a h n . c o m

“the pony on the left that pulled the surrey with the fringe on top.”
Not quite Emmy winning material, but everyone has to start somewhere, including Nancy Lee Grahn. A community theatre production of Oklahoma in her hometown of Skokie, IL offered the future Emmy winner her first taste of the spotlight, and what a long way she’s come since then.
Born on April 28th, Nancy was the second of three daughters born to Robert and Barbara Grahn. The acting bug bit in her teenage years when she earned roles in both high school and community theatre productions. It wasn’t just the stage that kept her occupied while growing up. Nancy was a straight-A student in high school, as well as head cheerleader and homecoming queen.
Opting against college, Nancy began to pursue acting professionally after graduating from high school. Chicago’s famous Goodman Theatre gave Nancy her first professional credit when she was cast in their production of Guys and Dolls. After her start in Chicago, a move to New York was inevitable, and she started studying at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Nancy was fortunate enough to study under acting greats Sanford Meisner and Bill Esper during her tenure there.
Her training in New York paved the way for roles in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Barefoot in the Park, as well as other productions in various and notable repertory theatres around the country.
An attempt to expand her career into the TV and film genre was met with success. A small role on Little House on the Prairie gave way to a contract role on One Life to Live. OLTL was based in New York, so she could continue her training, and she spent the better part of two years playing villain Marco Dane’s secretary Beverly Wilkes.
A permanent move to Los Angeles in 1982 led to guest starring spots on almost all the hottest primetime series of the era. Nancy appeared on everything from Magnum P.I. to Knight Rider to Murder, She Wrote. With a well rounded, up and coming resume, in 1985 Nancy was cast on the NBC daytime drama Santa Barbara.

“Julia Wainwright was a hero to impressionable young women everywhere. She was a bad-ass attorney, a feminist, a single mom, an ass-kicker, but she had her moments of vulnerability. Julia had the tragic story that befalls all of our favorite soap heroines. Everyone who watched the show loved her.”
Nancy joined the cast of NBC’s innovative soap Santa Barbara, in 1985 as Julia Wainwright. Attorney Julia originally showed up in Santa Barbara to help care for her ailing sister, Augusta, but quickly formed friendships with rival family the Capwells. She sparred with Mason Capwell (Lane Davies) almost immediately and they found themselves on opposing sides of a murder trial. Little did they know their opposing personalities would soon become so entwined and interconnected outside the courtroom.
An assessment of her life following a minor car accident brought Julia to the conclusion that she wanted to have a child and went about seeking a suitable partner for such a venture. It was her sparring partner Mason who rose to task, and the two entered into a “baby contract” to create the child both Julia and Mason so desperately wanted.
Although her relationship with Mason is one of Julia’s most memorable storylines, she had several other high profile stories as well. Julia survived birth, death, love, hate, rape and reconnection and did it flawlessly. Nancy portrayed Julia through two recasts of her beloved Mason (Terry Lester and Gordon Thomson), all the while keeping Mason and Julia front and center as a soap supercouple.
In 1989, Nancy was rewarded for her outstanding performance with a Daytime Emmy. Other nominations during her run as Julia include three Soap Opera Digest Award nominations and a win as Soap Opera Update’s Most Valuable Player in 1991.

“I really needed some downtime…”
Santa Barbara was cancelled in 1993, and while many of Nancy’s cast mates quickly found themselves working on other shows, Nancy chose to take the time to recuperate and take stock of her career and its direction.
Over the course of three years, Nancy made sporadic guest starring appearances on popular shows, Babylon 5, Models Inc. and Steven Bocho’s critically acclaimed Murder One. She also shot the feature, Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest for Dimension Films.
She also exercised her talents in writing and penned a script for the daytime drama Another World, all the while fending off offers for the role of Margo from east coast soap As the World Turns.

“There aren’t enough actors who call it like they see it, and frankly, that’s why we miss Grahn the most. She’s a team player and a fine actress.”
In the fall of 1996, after a three year absence from daytime, Wendy Riche, then General Hospital Executive Producer offered her (no audition required) a role as the newest member of the resurrected Cassadine family. Fortunately for viewers she accepted and in September debuted as Stefan’s cousin Alexis Davis. Alexis, like Julia, was an attorney, but her past was definitely more checkered and shrouded in mystery, as all things Cassadine tended to be.
For the first few months of her time on GH, Nancy pulled double duty on two Aaron Spelling shows with a recurring role on Melrose Place as Denise Fielding, sister-in-law to series regular Matt and as Principal Russell on 7th Heaven After her stints with Spelling, she became a permanent fixture in Port Charles.

“As the righteous lawyer with a deep dark secret, this fan favorite gives a dazzling, almost impossibly complex performance that is sad, brittle, erotic, tragic, savagely intelligent and sometimes so laugh-out-loud funny it’ll make you snort.”
A year into her role as Alexis, the character became more than just a distant Cassadine relative, and was thrust into the spotlight with a November sweeps reveal that she herself was not a cousin, but rather the lost Cassadine sister Natasha, fathered by Mikkos Cassadine illegitimately with opera singer Kristen Bergman.
Since her arrival in town, Alexis has managed to get herself tied to almost every major family in Port Charles. There was the obvious Cassadine/Spencer feud. Her romance and near marriage with Ned Ashton linked her to the Quartermaines and she married Jasper Jacks in a complicated charade of mismatched partners. Alexis' liason with her ex-client Sonny Corinthos produced a child, Kristina Corinthos Davis. During Kristina's illness in November 2004, Alexis wed Sonny's half-brother, Ric Lansing. Their daughter, Molly, was born during a harrowing train wreck the next year. Recently, Alexis's family expanded again when she discovered that the daughter she had at 16 and gave up for adotion, is actually Port Charles denizen Sam McCall.
Besides the men in her life, Alexis garnered an impressive track record as the top attorney in Port Charles. She spent nearly two years as chief counsel to mobster/coffee importer Sonny Corinthos, a job she took a lot of flak for, but excelled at nonetheless. After spending many years in private practice as a defense attorney, in May of 2006, Alexis was named District Attorney of Port Charles.
Nancy’s portrayal of Alexis earned her a Daytime Emmy nomination in 2000 for Outstanding Supporting Actress and three consecutive nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in 2003, 2004 and 2005. In 2002 She won a Soap Opera Digest award for best supporting actress and in 2003 the General Hospital Fan Club bestowed Best Actress accolades on her.

"I worked on my own. I produced it. I was in it. I did everything, which was fascinating."
A trip to Europe when Santa Barbara ended sparked her interest in creating a travel show called See America!. Nancy was involved in all aspects of the series and a pilot was produced for German television. Unfortunately, the show was not picked up, but the experience was exhilarating.

“When you really want something to get done in terms of writing a letter or standing up and marching for something, go after the women because the women are very motivated by cause.”
Nancy has always been very motivated to speak out for what she believes in. In fact, her outspokenness can be traced all the way back to grammar school where she successfully campaigned for girls to be able to wear pants. Since then she’s been actively involved in several different causes and action groups.
In 1989, she founded “Daytime for Choice”, focusing on the protection of the Roe v. Wade decision, with the support of 99% of the daytime community. She was a staunch Clinton supporter, and in 2000 was actively involved in the Gore/Lieberman ticket.
In addition to her political activities, Nancy has spent years involved with various charities, donating her time and efforts to many groups in the Los Angeles area. She’s worked with young incest victims, made the talk show circuit to discuss alcoholism and its effect on the family, and been a member of the Governor’s Committee for Employment of the Handicapped.

“…I become a better actress, I help more people, and I do more research on becoming a woman so Kate will become one hopefully by looking at a good example. That’s what my future is.”
In 1998, Nancy took a page out of her former alter ego Julia Wainwright’s history book and became a single mother. She gave birth to daughter, Katharine Grace in February of 1998 and has since then devoted every moment not spent working to the care and upbringing of Kate. She has described motherhood as “heaven on a stick” and cherishes every single day.