On the viewing horizon since the late 1980s, actress Maura Tierney has been a steady product of independent features, some hits and some misses, for close to a decade and a half. An odd and compelling beauty, she came from an upperscale Bostonian family and was raised in the Hyde Park district. Born February 3, 1965, the eldest child of three to a prosperous politician and city councilman father and real estate agent mother, Maura initially studied at New York University but left school prior to graduation when she hooked up with the Circle-in-the-Square theater school. Following some stage plays including "Baby with the Bathwater" and "Danny and the Deep Blue Sea," she moved to the West Coast in the late 1980s finding minor roles here and there in TV-movies and making the rounds on episodic shows such as "Growing Pains," "Family Ties" and "Law & Order." She met actor/husband Billy Morrissette after both were fired from the set of an eventually-scrapped Ralph Macchio series. After a few other failed pilots and a short-lived TV series, Maura made a minor film debut with The Linguini Incident and progressed to leading lady status in the B-movie spoof Dead Women in Lingerie, which didn't go over well. She finally hit pay dirt on TV when she won a female co-lead as smart but insecure newswriter Lisa Miller on the comedy series NewsRadio. The show was mediocre at best but sailed along for a number of seasons due to the fine comedy instincts of Dave Foley, Andy Dick and the late SNL player Phil Hartman. The show lost its oomph, however, as well as its audience after Hartman's tragic 1998 shotgun slaying, despite an assured replacement in fellow SNL alumni Jon Lovitz. The show couldn't escape its bad aura and it was gone the following year.

Maura's work on the TV sitcom thrust her into the film comedy limelight with prominent roles in such films as the Jim Carrey vehicle Liar Liar. She also showed up as sly, darker-edged femmes in the thriller Primal Fear, Primary Colors and Instinct. She received one of her best art-house roles as a heavy in her husband's feature Scotland, Pa.--he wrote and directed. It was back to steady TV work, however, into the millennium with the role of Abby, who was first a nurse and then a doctor, in the long-established and critically-acclaimed medical drama series ER, where she still resides on the staff. The L.A.-based actress and her husband enjoy traveling in their spare time.



Attended New York University and Circle in the Square Theatre School. Owns a black pug, with her husband Billy Morrissette, named Rose- Kennedy. They take her everywhere with them. Wrote an article in the spring 2001 issue of Flaunt titled, "'Rudy Giuliani' : A Fascist? You Be The Judge." Daughter of former Boston City Council president Joseph Tierney. On "Last Call with Carson Daly" (2002), she admitted that she was fired from the television show "Growing Pains" (1985). The show was supposed to have an episode arc in Europe, but the idea was scrapped when Kirk Cameron expressed a fear of flying. In the "NewsRadio" (1995) episode "Presence," her character Lisa is a math whiz who learns to play poker to win back Bill (Phil Hartman) after their boss Jimmy James ('Stephen Root' ) loses Bill in an inter-station poker game. In real life, Tierney won the 2004 (Season 2) Celebrity Poker Showdown, hosted by Dave Foley. Tierney defeated Lauren Graham at the final table. Foley, Graham and Tierney all appeared in "NewsRadio" (1995). Landed a key part of a single mom who falls for hockey player Bruce Willis in a romantic comedy titled "The Broadway Brawler." After just two weeks' shooting, however, "creative differences" brought an end to the project. Played an alcoholic in Oxygen (1999) and on "ER" (1994). Undergoing surgery to remove a tumor from her breast [July 13, 2009]. Had to leave "Parenthood" (2010) after discovering she had breast cancer. Promotional items with Maura were already released by NBC to promote the show in 2009 and production had to be pushed back, because of Maura's leave. She was eventually replaced by Lauren Graham.