Patricia Wettig, a three-time Emmy Award winner, made a significant impact on television in the late 1980s with her role as Nancy Weston, a wife and mother, on the award-winning series Thirtysomething (1987).
Born on December 4, 1951, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Patricia was one of four daughters to Tennessee college basketball coach Clifford Neal and his wife Florence. She grew up in Grove City, Pennsylvania, and studied drama at Temple University in Philadelphia. Patricia later graduated from Ohio Wesleyan in 1974.
She trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse and worked as a personal dresser to singer/dancer/actress Shirley MacLaine. Patricia also performed with New York's Circle Repertory Company, appearing in several off-Broadway productions from 1980 to 1981.
She met her husband, actor Ken Olin, while cast in a 1982 production of "A Streetcar Named Desire," where they played a married couple. They wed in 1982 and had two children together, Clifford (born 1983) and Roxanne (born 1986).
Patricia's early television appearances included roles on Hill Street Blues (1981),L.A. Law (1986),and St. Elsewhere (1982). Her success on Thirtysomething led to her title role in Taking Back My Life: The Nancy Ziegenmeyer Story (1992) and as a school teacher passenger in Stephen King's The Langoliers (1995).
Since then, Patricia has appeared in recurring roles on Breaking News (2002),Prison Break (2005),and Alias (2001),which was executive produced by her husband Ken. She also played the "other woman" in the Sally Field family drama series Brothers & Sisters (2006),directed by and featuring her husband.
Inspired by her husband's success as a TV producer and director, Patricia has downplayed her acting career in recent years and focused on playwriting, earning an M.F.A. in playwriting from Smith College in 2001.
