Biography

Currently filming the television series: The Oath with Sean Bean and Ryan Kwanten. Recent running roles: Homeland, (Elizabeth Gaines); True Blood, (Barbara Pelt); The Office, (Helene Beasley) and a guest on Designated Survivor. She has starred in over 45 made-for-TV movies, and is especially known for Charlene Matlock, Matlock and Ashley Pfister, Fonzie’s fiancée, Happy Days.

Broadway: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; Getting and Spending. Off-Broadway: The Baby Dance. Regional: Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Hedda Gabler, The Real Thing, A Glass Menagerie, The Little Foxes, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Road to Mecca with Miss Julie Harris, A Doll’s House, Dinner with Friends (original production), The Year of Magical Thinking, Hippolytus, Camille, Same Time Next Year, The Miracle Worker, Little Murders, All the Way Home, Nora, Copenhagen, Beyond Therapy, Love, Loss and What I Wore, Oliver, Grease, On a Clear Day, Three Penny Opera, The King and I…at such theatres as Long Wharf, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Old Globe, Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Repertory, Santa Fe Opera, Cleveland Playhouse, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Laguna Playhouse, The Lensic Santa Fe, Berkeley Rep, Williamstown Theatre Festival (six seasons); Theatre Princesse Grace, Monaco; Imperial Theatre, Tokyo, Japan. Partial film: Mighty Joe Young, The Walking Major; Leo and Loree; Sundays. Upcoming: Ties That Bind.

Born in Connecticut, Purl grew up in Japan, becoming the only foreigner to have trained at the Toho Geino Academy. Her studies continued at Neighborhood Playhouse and Lee Strasberg Institute. She was Founding Director of the California International Theatre Festival. Purl currently tours with her solo concerts Midnight Caravan – Celebrating the Great Ladies of the Glamorous Nightclub Era and Up Jumped Spring. Solo albums are Alone Together, Out of this World—Live Midnight Caravan and just released Up Jumped Spring. Past concert venue appearances include Lincoln Center Jazz, Feinstein’s in NY, Naples Philharmonic, Catalina Jazz Club in LA, Crazy Coqs in London, Club Raye in Paris and Satin Doll in Tokyo.