Donna Lynne Champlin is an American actress, dancer and singer from New York City. She is best known for playing Paula Proctor on The CW comedy-drama series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
Early life
Champlin was born in Rochester, New York, to a technical writer mother and a scientist father. She participated in various lessons, theatre productions, and national and international competitions throughout her childhood, in voice, piano, flute, theatre and dance. Champlin went on to study musical theatre at Carnegie Mellon University, graduating with her BFA in 1993, and studied abroad as a 1992 Advanced Acting Scholar in Shakespeare and Chekhov at the University of Oxford. In 1992 she won the Princess Grace Foundation Award in Theatre. While still in college, she performed as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz with Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera.
Career
Champlin took on the title role of Very Warm for May, her Broadway debut in James Joyce's The Dead, then By Jeeves, Hollywood Arms, , Billy Elliot the Musical, and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, for which she won the 2007 Obie Award. Other credits include: No, No Nanette, Very Good Eddie, First Lady Suite, Harold and Maude, My Life With Albertine, Bloomer Girl, and Jolson. She also performed with Len Cariou in the Simply Sondheim inaugural concert which celebrated the opening of the Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts. Champlin's awards include the 2007 OBIE award, the Princess Grace Award, the title of National Tap Dance Champion four consecutive times, and she has received grants from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, The Anna Sosenko Trust, and has received The Charlie Willard Memorial Grant. Champlin's film and television credits include The Dark Half, the 2000 and 2006 Annual Tony Awards, The View, Law & Order, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, and Live with Regis and Kelly. From 2015 to 2019, she starred in the role of Paula Proctor in The CW comedy-drama series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Champlin released a solo album entitled Old Friends, performs a one-woman show entitled Finishing the Hat, and teaches acting at the Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Hartford, and New York University.
Personal life
Champlin married actor Andrew Arrow in 2010 and they have one child.
