What You Don't Know About Cynthia Nixon

The world fell in love with Cynthia Nixon as the fiercely loyal and career-oriented Miranda Hobbes on HBO series "Sex and the City" and in the two subsequent feature films. That gig was far from her first: Nixon has been acting since she was 12 years old, and she's never not been ready to hustle. "For me, the number one goal was to always work with talented people and do interesting roles, ideally roles that were different than [ones] I had tried before," she told Harper's Bazaar.

As Esme noted, Nixon's parents divorced when she was six years old and she was raised primarily by her actor/game show personality mother, and the "SATC" star told the outlet that she was privileged to have a "good stage mom." Now a mother of three herself, if you check out her Instagram page, you'll discover that Nixon also keeps herself busy with various political activist pursuits, but also keeps the door to acting open as she's set to star in HBO's "And Just Like That..." alongside Sarah Jessica Parker and Kristin Davis. 

We've only scratched the surface. To learn even more about Cynthia Nixon, keep reading.

For some people, the idea of celebrities in politics doesn't always sound like the greatest of ideas, but with Cynthia Nixon, it was her passion and urge to move things forward that propelled her run for governor of New York state in 2018. 

As Glamour pointed out, Nixon really "[knew] the issues," with "more than 17 years of experience with activism for LGBTQ rights and education" under her belt prior to her run. Nixon told the magazine that she aimed to "address racial and economic injustice" and "the lack of affordable housing and the tyranny of landlords," and she also called out "[the Democratic] party's increasing reliance on corporate money and the demands of wealthy political donors." According to WXXI News, Nixon had been thinking about running for governor for years, and Hillary Clinton's loss in the 2016 election was what propelled her to throw her hat in the ring. "Time's up on waiting for progressive change in New York," she told the outlet.

In the end, Nixon lost out to Andrew Cuomo. She told Time that while she "hoped to win," she still felt like she accomplished something major. "But at the end of the day, I knew the most important thing about my running was to shed light on these issues," she said.

Longtime actor and political activist Cynthia Nixon certainly doesn't shy away from sharing sweet moments with her family on Instagram. 

Nixon and ex Danny Mozes share two children, and she and wife Christina Marioni have a son. According to Oprah Daily, Nixon and Marioni met whilst "fighting for smaller class sizes in New York's public school system" for a non-profit foundation that Marinoni helped found. Political activism equals love for these two lovebirds! 

In 2018, Nixon's eldest, Samuel, publicly came out as transgender. Speaking to Us Weekly the following year, Nixon said, "I'm very proud of him. It's one of those things. I felt really weird using the other pronoun in public, but people didn't know yet. ... He was good with it, and it was really nice, actually, when we announced it." 

Cynthia Nixon sounds like one proud and supportive mama bear.

If you're a fan of "Sex and the City," you can probably think of your top three favorite episodes or moments off the top of your head at any given moment. Imagine being Cynthia Nixon and actually living and breathing some of those iconic scenes.

On a fall 2020 episode of "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen," Andy Cohen asked Nixon to share her most memorable "SATC" moment. Nixon's response is sure to pull at the ol' heartstrings. "There were, of course, a lot," she began. "But I guess I would have to say that it was the first scene that the four of us shot out on the street ... The first scene that we shot publicly for the first 'Sex and the City' film. It was so amazing to be back together." Aw, now that's what you want to hear as a true blue fan.

On the flip side, when Nixon stopped by "The Wendy Williams Show" in 2018, she told Wendy Williams that she has a not-so-fond memory from the first "Sex and the City" movie. When the talk show host brought up the walk-in closet Big built for Carrie, Nixon said she was "a little devastated" to hear the audience applaud at the scene. Nixon said that to be on a show that was known for "female empowerment," it just didn't feel quite right to her. 

To each their own, right? 

As a mother and individual who is constantly fighting for important causes, it's not a big surprise to see Cynthia Nixon speak out about "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling's comments about the trans community. 

In June of 2020, the author took issue with an article that used the phrase "people who menstruate" and subsequently posted a bunch of tweets that were deemed insensitive towards trans people. A lot of celebrities spoke out against Rowling's controversial remarks, including "Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe.

When Cynthia Nixon appeared on Variety and iHeart's podcast "The Big Ticket" later that year, she said she could not wrap her mind around "the point of view [Rowling] is coming from" and was "given hope by Daniel Radcliffe's response" to the author's comments. "To have her kind of exclude and deny this segment of our population, some of whom are her most ardent fans was really upsetting," Nixon said. She also called Rowling's remarks "destructive" and "seemingly unnecessary," noting that she "[doesn't] understand why she weighed in on it at all."

"Sex and the City" was such a touchstone for everything related to New York City, female friendships, and relationships for women in their thirties, and Cynthia Nixon has always been candid about said touchstone.

In a piece she wrote for Refinery29 in 2018, Nixon thinks back to the show's premiere and when it was originally on the air to discuss how "no one wanted to be a Miranda," the character that she played for six seasons as well as in the two feature films. She notes that even though Miranda Hobbes, especially at the beginning of the series which debuted in 1998, was considered "decidedly un-glamourous" and oftentimes "judgmental," she "always loved and admired Miranda ... because she was smart and independent and determined." We agree.

But her feelings for the character aside, when Cynthia Nixon spoke to Indiewire in 2019, she got into what the HBO show might look like if it were made in the present. "Well, I certainly think we would not have all been white, God forbid," she said. "One of the hardest things for me — it was at the time, too — is looking back and seeing how much of it centered around money, right? And how, Steve, my [character's] husband, was like the closest we got to a working class guy, you know? Never mind a working class woman, right?" She makes some good points.

If you take a quick look at Cynthia Nixon's Instagram page, you're going to find a true New Yorker at heart with plenty of little snaps from around NYC — just like this one featuring a shot of Nixon and her son out on the street in costume on Halloween of 2019. 

Nixon spoke to The New Potato about some of her favorite things about the city, as she grew up in New York and has worked on television as well as onstage throughout her entire career. "I just love the energy of the street, and to me, the subway is just an extension of the street," she said. "I love the subway. I know the subway is really messed up nowadays, and there are so many delays that are frustrating to me too, but the subway is the miracle of the city." She's posted quite a few photos over the years on her Instagram page of her riding the subway in New York, including this one.

In 2018 the Gothamist reported that Nixon walked into the famous Zabar's in the Upper West Side and ordered "a cinnamon raisin bagel with lox" complete with "red onions, capers, tomato, and plain cream cheese," which seemed to cause quite a frenzy among New Yorkers, but she confidently stood behind her bagel order. Start spreading the cream cheese, she's eating a cinnamon raisin bagel with lox today.

If there's one thing that Cynthia Nixon and Miranda Hobbes may have in common is their dedication — for Miranda, her fierce sense of devotion to her girlfriends, and for Nixon, it's her urge to fight the good fight in terms of political activism. 

For Cynthia Nixon, being a political activist doesn't just fit under one specific umbrella as she has so many different passion projects on the go. For instance, in February of 2020, Nixon wrote an op-ed for NBC News showing her public support for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. And during an appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyers," she spoke about how the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 reminded her of a different movement from a few decades ago. "Black Lives Matter protesters have taken to the streets and are completely changing our world, I feel like that is what AIDS activists did and what LGBT people did in founding ACT-UP, taking to the streets," she said. Out.com reported that Nixon participated in some of the political protests as she "attended the Queer Liberation March in June as well as the Black Lives Matter protests." 

Gotham Mag notes how Nixon was arrested in 2002 "for blocking the entrance to City Hall and singing "We Shall Not Be Moved" to protest ... a cut [of] $350 million out of the Board of Education's budget." She's truly too cool.

For someone who has been professionally acting since the age of 12, it makes a lot of sense that actor Cynthia Nixon has made a lot of cents.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Cynthia Nixon's net worth sits at $25 million. Her most notable role to date, of course, was Miranda Hobbes on HBO's "Sex and the City" for six seasons as well as two feature films — and she raked in a hearty amount of dough for that part. According to Parade, by the end of the series, Nixon reportedly brought in $350,000 an episode. She also earned several million for the two movies based on the series, and in 2021, Variety reported she'd get $1 million an episode for the 10-part revival series.

Celebrity Net Worth notes that in addition to a fruitful career in television and movies, Nixon is no stranger to the theatre. She's won not one, but two Tony awards for her stage acting work. What's more, she's practically made a whole other career out of narrating audiobooks for Audible. She's lent her voice to 19 titles over the past several years, including the 10th Anniversary Edition of Candace Bushnell's "Sex and the City," as well as several children's books and a couple popular works by Emily Giffin and Al Gore.

Cynthia Nixon has a knack for creating purr-fect Instagram content.

If you take a look at Nixon's Instagram page, you'll find a number of different posts in which Nixon showcases her cat, Aurora. For instance, in one picture, we see the sweet little gray feline wearing a "Happy New Year" hat on her back as she rings in 2020. Pawwww. And in March 2020, Nixon took to Instagram to show the world what her quarantine was looking like with her yawning and lounging sidekick. "Aurora is an accurate representation of how things are going in our household – part Jabba the Hutt indolence part The Scream hysteria," Nixon wrote. Aurora's body language here really helps to paint a picture. 

And when Nixon dropped by "The Kelly Clarkson Show," Clarkson couldn't help but inquire about Nixon's cat and how she heard that she was trying to "leash train" her. "Well, I think anybody who has a cat or knows about cats knows that you can't really train your cat, your cat tries to train you," Nixon replied. "But, yeah, we do like to take her outside, but we don't want her to bolt, so we actually put her on a leash sometimes." That's actually pretty clever.

For Cynthia Nixon, her love of acting doesn't just start and stop with television and film; she has been stage acting for most of her career as well. 

According to American Theatre, Nixon hit the Great White Way for the first time as Dinah Lord in the 1980 production of "The Philadelphia Story," and she has gone on to star in other award-winning shows such as "Angels in America" and "Rabbit Hole." During a visit to "Live with Ryan and Kelly," Nixon spoke about her time as a young Broadway actor who was working in two different shows simultaneously — which meant she literally had to hoof it from one show to the next so as not to miss her cue. "I started at one theatre and I went to the second theatre and then I came back to the first theatre again," she recalled. "I was in the first act of 'Hurlyburly' and the second act of 'The Real Thing.'" Talk about serious dedication and a serious cardio workout.

When American Theatre chatted with Nixon about her directorial debut for the New Group's "Rasheeda Speaking," she said she enjoyed standing at the helm of the show. "If you direct something, it would probably be much harder to not be in love with it, because first of all, you work on it for a really long time, and you feel responsible for it," she shared. "When you're directing something, you really have to love it." 

"And Just Like That...," HBO Max's "Sex and the City" revival limited series, will bring Cynthia Nixon, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kristin Davis back together again, but Kim Cattrall will not be reprising her role of Samantha. While much has been said about Cattrall's fractured relationships with her "SATC" co-stars, it sure sounds like Nixon, Parker, and Davis have a real friendship. 

When Parker chatted with Gwyneth Paltrow on the Goop podcast in 2018, she sang Nixon's gubernatorial run's praises. SJP called her long-time friend "brilliant" and a "formidable" candidate and stated that Cynthia Nixon has "a point of view about the city where she was born and raised, just like anybody else who might run for public office." 

Nixon has reminisced and shown support to her "SATC" co-stars on her Instagram page as well. In November of 2019, she posted the movie poster to Kristin Davis' film "Holiday in the Wild," and said she was "so proud of my friend @iamkristindavis who has created a beautiful, moving" film. And in early 2020, Nixon posted a comparable screenshot from "Little Women" matched up with one from "SATC" and said the movie "felt familiar somehow." So sweet.

To achieve the EGOT, one most scoop up an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony — and you better believe Cynthia Nixon is almost there.

As far as Emmy awards go, Nixon has been nominated five times and taken home the Emmy twice — once in 2004 for Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series for her role on "Sex and the City" as Miranda Hobbes and one for Outstanding Guest Actress In A Drama Series for her guest-starring role on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."

Nixon has also earned some hardware for her work in narration. In 2008, she won the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for her involvement in the audiobook of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." And finally, she nabbed one Tony in 2017 for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role in "The Little Foxes" and another in 2006 for her role in "Rabbit Hole." Her mantle's just missing that little gold man. 

Cynthia Nixon was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006 at the age of 40, and as she told Cure, she isn't so sure it would've been detected as early as it was had she not started going in for yearly mammograms at the age of 35. As Nixon shared with the outlet, she started getting annual mammograms earlier than the guidelines recommend because her own mother had breast cancer twice.

She told Cure that after her doctor detected the cancer, she wanted to let people know "how important it is to get mammograms, how important it is to get them regularly and how important it is to get them young," especially if you have a family history. After she received treatment, Nixon became an ambassador for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

"I want [women] most to hear me saying that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself," Nixon said on "Nightline" in 2008. "So the only thing to really be afraid of is if you don't go get your mammograms, because there's some part of you that doesn't want to know, and that's the thing that's going to trip you up."

There are some parts that some actors are quite possibly destined to take on, and perhaps actor Cynthia Nixon was supposed to play the role of Emily Dickinson one day. 

In 2016, Nixon starred as famed poet Emily Dickinson in Terence Davies' feature film "A Quiet Passion." Speaking to the New Yorker in 2017, she mentioned "incessantly" listening to "a recording of Dickinson's poetry, read by the actress Julie Harris" as she was growing up. When the "A Quiet Passion" role was up for grabs, Nixon told The Seattle Times that she met up with Davies only to find out that "he had written the script with [her] in mind." She said the role seemed almost "too good to be true," as she had spent her formative years listening to the works of Dickinson at home, so she had practically "memorized it by osmosis."

It seems Cynthia Nixon's portrayal of the 19th-century poet in "A Quiet Passion" really captured people's attention as well as it was met with many rave reviews. RobertEbert.com gave it four stars, writing, "Nixon's precision in portraying every particular mood of Emily — for each individual scene calls for absolute specificity — is simply spectacular." 

Sounds like a must-see movie, especially if you're a fan of Emily Dickinson.