Karen Young (actress)

Young was born in Pequannock Township, New Jersey on September 29, 1958.^[1] She graduated from Douglass Residential College at Rutgers University as an English major.^[2][3]

After graduation, Young moved to New York City and became an actress. She was working as a waitress when she saw an advertisement in Backstage that read: "Wanted: 24-year-old Irish Catholic girl with long blonde hair." Young responded to the ad and made her screen debut starring in Tony Garnett's 1983 vigilante-thriller feature film Handgun, for which she had her hair cut off and in which she agreed to appear topless.^[4]

She also appeared in films such as 9½ Weeks, Heat (1986), Jaws: The Revenge, Torch Song Trilogy, Night Game, The Wife, Daylight and Mercy. Young portrayed Sister Mary in The Orphan Killer (2011), and starred in many U.S. independent and foreign films including Heading South,^[3] Two Gates of Sleep and Conviction.

Young made her television debut on The Equalizer in the 1985 season one episode "Lady Cop" as Officer Sandra Stahl, who doesn't want anything to do with dirty cops led by Stahl's new partner Officer Nick Braxton (Will Patton), and his partners-in-crime, Officer Frank Sergi (Bruce MacVittie), and Officer Miguel Canterra (Esai Morales).^[5] Young portrayed FBI Agent Robyn Sanseverino on The Sopranos^[6] as well as various characters in the Law & Order franchise.

Her stage credits include roles in both New York productions of Sam Shephard's A Lie of the Mind, playing daughter Sally in 1985 and mother Lorraine in Ethan Hawke's 2010 production.^[7][8] Young and the rest of the cast were recognized as some of the "best performers of 2010" by Hilton Als in The New Yorker.^[9]

Young married actor Tom Noonan^[10] in 1992, and they had two children together before their 1999 divorce. She married Ken Eisen in 2012.^[11]