ELIZABETH PERKINS, ACTRESS, IS OUR DIABETIC OF THE MONTH

Elizabeth Perkins Biography

Claim to Fame: Actress
DOB: November 18, 1960
Diabetes Type: 1

Quote: “I’m actually a happier person than I was before I was diagnosed.”

Elizabeth Perkins was born on November 18, 1960 in Queens, New York. She was raised in Vermont and later moved to Chicago after high school, where she spent three years at the Goodman School of Drama at DePaul University taking acting lessons. She graduated with a BFA acting certificate in 1981.

Back in New York in 1984, Perkins starred in her first theater performance. It was as a stage actress that Perkins found her first husband, Terry Kinney, and married in Chicago. (She has since divorced Kinney and is now married to cinematographer Julio Macat). Later, in 1986, she made her film debut in About Last Night, and soon after starred in Big, a breakthrough in her career. Perkins has since starred in an array of films, including The Flinstones (as Wilma alongside John Goodman), Avalon, Miracle on 34th Street, Must Love Dogs, and The Ring Two. She’s even dabbled in voiceover in the animated film Finding Nemo.

In 1993, Perkins ventured into television starting with For Their Own Good, a TV movie based on the true story of a woman who underwent mandatory sterilization to work in a chemical plant, then moved onto the series Battery Park and If These Walls Could Talk. She has since regularly appeared on TV, including her star role on the hit Showtime series Weeds, where she plays Celia Hodes, a breast cancer survivor. It was here that Perkins was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2005 at age 44. She was just filming the first season of the critically acclaimed series; she later received multiple award nominations for her role on the show.

“I felt completely overwhelmed that first year on the show, and I didn’t tell anybody I had diabetes. All of a sudden I was in my trailer at work, testing my glucose, and shooting myself up, and I was really scared and felt very alone and completely in over my head … it took me a good year and a half to embrace this and say, proudly, ‘I’m diabetic and I’m in control of my disease.’”

After earning three Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations for her role on Weeds, the actress has decided to end her five-year run on the hit series to develop her own comedy series at age 49. She’ll also be starring in the upcoming film Hop