David Hyde Pierce portrays Dr. Niles Crane, Frasier's (Kelsey Grammer) younger, but equally neurotic brother.
Pierce’s brilliant comedic portrayal of Niles has earned him three Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actor. Most recently, he was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2003 for “Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.”
Additionally, Pierce has won multiple American Comedy Awards for Funniest Supporting Male Performer in a TV Series, Screen Actors Guild Awards for Best Supporting Actor, Television Critics Association Awards and Viewers For Quality Television Awards for his portrayal of the character. Pierce holds the record for most SAG Award nominations, at 18.
Pierce studied acting at Yale University with Bart Teusch, Austin Pendleton, Lynne Meadow, and Nikos Psacharapoulus, and worked for two seasons at Mr. Psacharapoulus’s Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts. After graduating in 1981, he moved to New York, and made his professional and Broadway debut in 1982 as the waiter in Christopher Durang’s “Beyond Therapy.” He went on to create roles in the off-broadway productions of Mark O’Donnell’s “That’s it Folks!,” Richard Greenberg’s “The Author’s Voice and The Maderati,” Harry Kondoleon’s “Zero Positive,” and Jules Feiffer’s “Elliot Loves,” before returning to Broadway in Wendy Wasserstein’s “The Heidi Chronicles.” In addition to his work in new plays, Mr. Pierce also appeared in “Hamlet” and “Much Ado” at Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival, “Holiday” and “Camille” at the Loug Wharf in New Haven, “Candida” at the Goodman in Chicago, “The Seagull,’ “Tartuffe,” “Cyrano,” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, and Peter Brooks’ production of “The Cherry Orchard” in New York, Moscow, Leningrad, and Tokyo.
In 1991, he came to Los Angeles where he appeared in Terrence McNally’s “It’s Only a Play” at the Doolittle Theatre, and in the Reprise production of “The Boys from Syracuse,” directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman. Pierce teamed with Seidelman once again in the Geffen Playhouse presentation of “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks” with Uta Hagen. Mr. Pierce’s film credits include “Bright Lights, Big City,” “Crossing Delancy,” “Little Man Tate,” “Sleepless in Seattle,” “Wolf,” “Nixon,” “Isn’t She Great,” “Wet, Hot, American Summer,” “Full Frontal,” and most recently “Down With Love” and the animated films “A Bug’s Life,” “Osmosis Jones” and “Treasure Planet.”
His television credits include a short but happy stint on Norman Lear’s political satire “The Powers that Be,” and a long but happy stint on "Frasier."
Pierce resides in Los Angeles.
