David Hyde Pierce (born David Pierce; April 3, 1959) is an American actor. Known for his portrayal of psychiatrist Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier from 1993 to 2004, he received four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor… David Hyde Pierce (born David Pierce; April 3, 1959) is an American actor. Known for his portrayal of psychiatrist Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier from 1993 to 2004, he received four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series as well as two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Pierce has also received five Golden Globe Awards nominations for Best Supporting Actor for the role. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role of Lt. Frank Cioffi in the Broadway musical Curtains (2007).
Pierce acted in such films as Crossing Delancey (1988), The Fisher King (1991), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Wolf (1994), Nixon (1995), Down with Love (2003), and The Perfect Host (2010). He voiced roles in Disney Pixar's A Bug's Life (1998), Osmosis Jones (2001), and Treasure Planet (2002). He portrayed Henry Newman in the comedy film Wet Hot American Summer and reprised his role in two series from Netflix in 2014 and in 2017. From 1992 to 1993, Pierce starred in the NBC sitcom The Powers That Be. He has since acted in the CBS legal drama The Good Wife (2014–2015), the ABC docu-drama When We Rise (2017), and the HBO Max series Julia (2022–23).
Besides his performance in Curtains, Pierce also had Broadway roles as Sir Robin in Monty Python's Spamalot (2005), Vanya in the comedic play Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (2013) and Horace Vandergelder in the revival of Hello, Dolly! (2017). For the latter two, Pierce was nominated for a Tony Award. He made his Broadway directorial debut with the musical It Shoulda Been You (2015).
We believe privacy is a right, not a trade-off. Choose exactly what you're comfortable with. You can change these any time. Full privacy policy.
Essential
Always on
Required for the site to function
Session management, security tokens, login state, and your cookie preference itself. These cannot be turned off. No personal data is shared with third parties.
Analytics
Optional
Helps us understand what content you enjoy
We use anonymised analytics (e.g. Google Analytics) to see which articles perform well, how long people spend reading, and where traffic comes from. This helps us write better content. Your IP address is anonymised and no data is sold.
Personalisation
Optional
Remembers your preferences across visits
Remembers your reading preferences and recently read articles so we can surface relevant content. All data stays in your browser — nothing is sent to our servers.
Advertising
Optional
Used to show relevant ads that support the site
Allows advertising partners to show you ads based on your interests. If you decline, you'll still see ads but they won't be tailored to you. We work with Google AdSense and similar networks. You can opt out globally at youronlinechoices.eu.
Continue reading
You're clearly a fan
Get the best stories in your inbox
Join thousands of readers who get XOTLIST delivered daily. No spam, ever. Unsubscribe anytime.
Yale UniversityAlma mater
