Tovah Feldshuh

Tovah Feldshuh (born Terri Sue Feldshuh) is an American actress, singer and playwright who has been a Broadway performer for fifty years and has received four Tony Award nominations.

She is Jewish, was raised in Scarsdale in Westchester County, New York, graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, and began her career at the Guthrie Theater. She first appeared on stage as "Terri Fairchild" before adopting her Hebrew name, Tovah, and her original surname as her professional name. She made her Broadway debut in the 1973 musical Cyrano and played the title role in Yentl off-Broadway and on Broadway, a performance praised by the story's author, Isaac Bashevis Singer. Her Golda's Balcony, about the Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, became the longest-running one-woman play in Broadway history in 2005. Her other stage credits include Lend Me a Tenor, Irena's Vow and Pippin, and in 2022 she took over the role of Mrs. Brice in the Broadway revival of Funny Girl.

On screen, she came to international prominence in the 1978 miniseries Holocaust, and from 1991 to 2007 she had a recurring role as a defense attorney on NBC's Law & Order; both roles brought her Emmy Award nominations. She played the former politician Deanna Monroe on AMC's The Walking Dead in 2015–2016 and the main character's mother on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend from 2015 to 2019. Her films include A Walk on the Moon, Kissing Jessica Stein and She's Funny That Way. In 2025 the documentary Tovah looked back on her more than five decades on stage and screen.