Peri Gilpin figures she was destined to portray a character such as radio producer Roz Doyle on “Frasier.” For one thing, her late father, Jim O’Brien, was a nationally known broadcaster who used to take his daughter into a radio station in Dallas to sing “Happy Birthday” over the airwaves. Later, she worked in Hollywood with the producer of “Wings,” the late Roz Doyle, her character’s namesake.
Born in Waco, Texas, Gilpin was raised in Dallas, where she studied acting at the Dallas Theater Center. After high school she continued her acting studies at the University of Texas at Austin and at the British-American Academy in London.
Returning to the United States, she found work in Dallas as a makeup artist, but her lifelong desire to act motivated her to become an apprentice with the renowned Williamstown (Massachusetts) Theatre Festival. Her stage credits include starring in the off-Broadway production of “As Bees in Honey Drown” at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, the off-Broadway production of “Lucky Lucy and the Fortune Man,” as Helena in the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and in numerous regional theater productions, including “The Crucible,” “Hawthorne County” and “The Maderati” (for which she also served as associate producer).
Gilpin will next be seen in the independent film “Spring Forward” with Liev Schreiber, Campbell Scott, Lili Taylor and Ned Beatty, as well as “How to Kill Your Neighbor’s Dog” with Kenneth Branagh and Robin Wright Penn. She also just wrapped the cable TV movie “Laughter on the 23rd Floor” with Nathan Lane. Her additional television credits include the movies “The Secret She Carried” and “Fight for Justice: The Nancy Conn Story.” She was a series regular on “Flesh ’N’ Blood” and has guest-starred in such series as NBC’s “Cheers,” “Wings,” “Designing Women,” “21 Jump Street” and “The Outer Limits.”
Recently, Gilpin joined her “Frasier” co-star Jane Leeves in the formation of the duo’s production company entitled Bristol Cities where they are developing film and television projects.
Gilpin lives in Los Angeles with her husband, artist Christian Vincent, and their three dogs. Her birthday is May 27.
