Throughout her illustrious career, Bernadette Peters has dazzled with her performances on stage and screen. Her numerous accolades including three Tony Awards, a Golden Globe, four Emmy nominations and four Grammy Award nominations, plus a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Best known as one of Broadway’s most critically acclaimed performers, Bernadette just starred in the highly successful run of the Cameron Mackintosh production of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, celebrating the life and work of Stephen Sondheim. The production first premiered in London where she made her West End debut before transferring to Los Angeles ahead of its extended Broadway run in Spring 2025.
Other recent Broadway credits include Hello, Dolly!; Follies; A Little Night Music and Gypsy, where she garnered both Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations. She also appeared in City Center’s Encores! Production, A Bed and a Chair: A New York Love Affair, featuring the music of Stephen Sondheim and orchestrations by Wynton Marsalis.
Peters garnered both the Tony and Drama Desk Award for her performance in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Song and Dance. She also won a Tony for her performance in the revival of Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun. She received Tony nominations for her outstanding performances on Broadway in Neil Simon’s The Goodbye Girl, Stephen Sondheim’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Sunday in the Park with George, the Jerry Herman/Gower Champion ode to the movies, Mack and Mabel, and the Leonard Bernstein/Comden and Green musical On the Town. Peters also earned a Drama Desk nomination for her unforgettable portrayal of the Witch in Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods.
Additionally, she enjoys a career which boasts an impressive list of television credits, most recently the Apple TV+ series, High Desert, NBC-TV’s Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, for which she earned an Emmy nomination. The popular series was made into a TV movie musical titled Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas for The Roku Channel. Other TV appearances include the CW’s Katy Keene, CBS All Access’ The Good Fight and Amazon Prime’s Golden Globe-winning series, Mozart in the Jungle.
Additional television credits include Smash, Grey’s Anatomy, Ugly Betty and Ally McBeal (Emmy nomination), among others. In addition to starring in the Lifetime TV movie Living Proof, Peters has lit up the silver screen in over 30 films throughout her distinguished career. She received a Golden Globe Award for her memorable performance in Pennies from Heaven. Other film credits include The Jerk, The Longest Yard, Silent Movie, Annie, Pink Cadillac, Slaves of New York, Woody Allen’s Alice, Impromptu, It Runs in the Family, Coming Up Roses, The Broken Hearts Gallery and most recently, a surprise appearance in the popular Jonathan Larson biopic, tick, tick…BOOM!
Bernadette has recorded six solo albums, including the Grammy-nominated I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight, Sondheim, Etc., Bernadette Peters Live at Carnegie Hall and Bernadette Peters Loves Rodgers & Hammerstein, in addition to numerous original Broadway cast recordings.
Peters devotes her time and talents to numerous events that benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Her “pet project,” Broadway Barks, co-founded with Mary Tyler Moore, is an annual, star-studded dog and cat adoption event that benefits shelter animals in the New York City and tri-state area. Last year, while in London, Bernadette presented West End Woofs, a sister organization to Broadway Barks. The event is the first of its kind in the U.K. that fostered a spirit of community among animal shelters and rescue groups.
The American Theater Wing honored her efforts and awarded her with the Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award, which recognizes an individual from the theatre community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations, regardless of whether such organizations relate to the theater.
She is a New York Times best-selling author who has penned three children’s books: Broadway Barks, Stella is a Star and Stella and Charlie: Friends Forever. All of her proceeds from the sale of these books benefit both animal charities.
