About Carrie
CARRIE PRESTON has played fan-favorite roles in everything from stage to prestige television to the big screen and has directed feature films (including Sundance official selection THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID), web series (DARWIN: THE SERIES) and television (CLAWS, THE GOOD FIGHT, and YOUR HONOR).
Her best-known TV roles include Arlene Fowler on seven seasons of the HBO series TRUE BLOOD, an Emmy-award winning portrayal of Elsbeth Tascioni on both THE GOOD WIFE and THE GOOD FIGHT for CBS, her real-life husband’s (Michael Emerson) love interest, (Grace, on PERSON OF INTEREST) and also his mom (in a flashback on LOST). She played the female lead on the NBC sitcom CROWDED, and starred as Polly, a cunning con-artist manicurist with a consistently mysterious past, on TNT’s hit series CLAWS.
Notable guest spots include GRACE AND FRANKIE with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin; GETTING ON, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, LAW AND ORDER (SVU and CRIMINAL INTENT), PRIVATE PRACTICE; ROYAL PAINS, SEX AND THE CITY; SPIN CITY and the series finale of ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. She also did long guest arcs on BROCKMIRE with Hank Azaria; WHEN WE RISE, the ABC mini-series about the gay rights movement; THE FOLLOWING; and Showtime’s HAPPYISH.
Recent indie film roles include the Sundance and Netflix darling TO THE BONE with Keanu Reeves and Lily Collins, the thriller 30 MILES FROM NOWHERE, A BAG OF HAMMERS with Rebecca Hall, DAISY WINTERS with Brooke Shields, and the female lead in ONE OF THESE DAYS. She plays Kevin Bacon’s wife in SPACE ODDITY directed by Kevin’s wife, Kyra Sedgwick, and in THEY/THEM from Blumhouse.
Carrie made her legendary big screen debut as one of the two sexy, Southern bridesmaid sisters in the Julia Roberts blockbuster MY BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING. Other film work: DUPLICITY with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen; the Oscar-nominated TRANSAMERICA; Woody Allen’s VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA; Alan Ball’s TOWELHEAD opposite Aaron Eckhart, VIRGINIA with Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris; and the critically acclaimed THAT EVENING SUN, with Hal Holbrook. Other film credits are STRAIGHT-JACKET; the lead in the indie festival hit LOVELY BY SURPRISE; MERCURY RISING with Bruce Willis; FOR RICHER OR POORER with Tim Allen and Kirstie Alley; GUINEVERE with Stephen Rea and Sarah Polley; WOMAN WANTED with Holly Hunter and Keifer Sutherland; STEPFORD WIVES with Nicole Kidman; and Robert Redford’s THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE. She will be seen in Alexander Payne’s THE HOLDOVERS with Paul Giamatti in 2023.
With James Vasquez and Mark Holmes, Carrie started her own production company (Daisy 3 Pictures) and directed their first feature (29th AND GAY), starred in their second feature, READY? OK! and directed their 3rd feature: the official Sundance Film Festival selection THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID starring Anne Heche, Marcia DeBonis and Alia Shawkat. At the Nashville Film Festival, THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID won Best Film by a Woman Director (Carrie Preston) and Best Actress (Alia Shawkat) and at Film Out San Diego it won Best Screenplay (Kellie Overbey) and the Audience Award for Best Supporting Actress (Marcia DeBonis).
On stage, Preston’s early breakout was her Outer Critics Award-nominated turn as Miranda in George C. Woolf’s Shakespeare in the Park and Broadway production of Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST with Patrick Stewart. Her other Broadway credits include FESTEN with Jeremy Sisto and Julianna Margulies and THE RIVALS with Brian Murray and Emily Bergl. Off-Broadway: ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA at the Public Theater (playing Octavius Caesar to Vanessa Redgrave’s Cleopatra); CYCLING PAST THE MATTERHORN with Shirley Knight; John Guare’s CHAUCER IN ROME with Jon Tenney (Lincoln Center); BOYS AND GIRLS with Malcolm Gets; FREEDOMLAND (Playwrights Horizons); the stage version of STRAIGHT-JACKET (Playhouse 91); and THE LIBERTINE (Theatre Row).
Regional roles include Honey opposite Patrick Stewart and Mercedes Ruehl in WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?; TAMING OF THE SHREW with Bebe Neuwirth and Roger Rees; Warren Leight’s NO FOREIGNERS BEYOND THIS POINT; and Mia Farrow’s daughter in James Lapine’s FRAN’S BED. She again acted alongside her husband Michael in McCarter Theater’s acclaimed production of HAMLET.
Carrie and Michael and their rescue pup Chumley call NYC home.