Wendy Makkena

Wendy Makkena is an accomplished actress, musician and entrepreneur from New York City. 

FILM
In feature films Ms. Makkena is perhaps best known for her role of shy novice sister Mary Robert in Sister Act and Sister Act 2.  She recently appeared in The Discovery with Rooney Mara, Jason Segel, and Robert Redford, as Mr. Redford’s beloved wife Maggie. She starred in Wanderland, directed by Josh Klausner, and made heads turn as the British real estate agent Maggie in Fair Market Value, which won the Best Ensemble Award at the Bentonville Film Festival. Other films include State of Play as Ben Affleck’s erstwhile assistant, and leading roles in in Finding North, Camp Nowhere, Noise, Air Bud and John Sayle’s Eight Men Out.

TELEVISION
On television, Wendy has also starred in several comedy series:  Oliver Beene on Fox,  Listen Up on CBS (opposite Jason Alexander),  The Job on NBC (opposite Denis Leary), Fox’s The Mob Doctor and the role of “All the Way” Mae in the TV series A League of Their Own, directed by Penny Marshall. Other major TV roles include recurring roles on Judging Amy opposite Tyne Daly, NYPD Blue opposite David Caruso, Alpha House on Amazon Prime, Rizzoli & Isles, The Good Wife, Desperate Housewives, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, CSI, House, The Nine and Philly. She currently has a recurring role on NCIS as Kate Todd’s sister Dr. Rachel Cranston.

STAGE
On stage, Ms. Makkena's roles run the gamut from the lead in the  Broadway farce Lend Me a Tenor, to working opposite Dianne Wiest in Cynthia Ozick’s holocaust drama The Shawl directed by Sidney Lumet. Her numerous Broadway roles include her acclaimed turn as Crazy Terry in  Side Man, Tony Award winner for Best Play, and working with Peter O’Toole in Pygmalion. Other notable New York theater includes Greenberg’s American Plan; Donald Margulies’s Loman Family Picnic and Prin with Eileen Atkins. At Playwrights Horizons, Wendy originated the roles of Carmen Berra in Bronx Bombers and Megan in The Water Children (NY & LA), for which she won the LA Drama Critics Circle Award and the Robby Award for Best Actress. She was selected by Harold Pinter to appear in the American premiere of Mountain Language, opposite David Strathairn, and performed in The Birthday Party with Jean Stapleton. She has also worked with such artists as Beth Henley at New York Stage & Film and Julie Taymor in The Taming of the Shrew. 

To read about Wendy's success as an entrepreneur click HERE