Throughout the 1980s, she appeared in several television programs, including Simon & Simon, Kojak, and CBS Summer Playhouse.
Harden's first film role was in a 1979 student-produced movie at the University of Texas. Marcia Gay Harden with John Heald on the Carnival Dream in November 2009 She graduated from Surrattsville High School in Clinton, Maryland in 1976, the University of Texas at Austin with a BA in theatre, and the Graduate Acting Program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a Master of Fine Arts. Harden's family frequently moved because of her father's job, living in Japan, Germany, Greece, California, and Maryland. One of Harden's brothers is named Thaddeus, as is her former husband. Harden, one of five children, was born in La Jolla, California, the daughter of Texas natives Beverly ( née Bushfield), a housewife, and Thad Harold Harden (1932-2002), who was an officer in the United States Navy. In September 2015, she began starring in the CBS medical drama Code Black, in which she plays the lead role of Dr. She was nominated for her second Primetime Emmy Award for her performance in the 2009 television film The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler. Her performance won her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She returned to Broadway in 2009 as Veronica in God of Carnage. Harden made her Broadway debut in 1993, starring in Angels in America, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. Other notable film roles include American Gun (2005), and 2007's The Mist and Into the Wild. She earned another Academy Award nomination for her performance as Celeste Boyle in Mystic River (2003). For her performance as artist Lee Krasner in the 2000 film Pollock, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She followed this with roles in films including Used People (1992), The First Wives Club (1996), and Flubber (1997). Her film breakthrough was in the 1990 Coen brothers-directed Miller's Crossing. Marcia Gay Harden (born August 14, 1959) is an American actress.