She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2000 for her role in You Can Count on Me, and over agawithin in 2004 for her role in Kinsey. More films she appeared inside include Mystic River, The Truman Show, and Primal Fear.

Her crucial television roles include "Mary Ann Singleton" in the television adaptations of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City books. She won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress around a Comedy Series within 2004 for her recurring role when the final love interest of Frasier Crane in Frasier.

Her extensive stage credits in Broadway and elsewhere include Hedda Gabler, Holiday (based on the film star Katherine Hepburn), and The Crucible.

Linney was educated at a Northfield Mount Hermon School and Brown University, where she graduated sustaining the Bachelor of Arts in 1986. She too trained at a Juilliard School and the Moscow Art Theatre. Her father is the dramatist Romulus Linney and her mother was a nurse.

Selected Filmography
Driving Lessons (2006) as Laura The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) as Erin Bruner The Squid and the Whale (2005) as Joan Berkman P.S. (2004) as Louise Harrington Kinsey (2004) as Clara McMillen Love Actually (2003) as Sarah Mystic River (2003) as Annabeth Markum The Life of David Gale (2003) as Constance Harraway The Mothman Prophecies (2002) as Connie Mills The Laramie Project (2002) as Sherry Johnson The House of Mirth (2000) as Bertha Dorset You Can Count on Me (2000) as Samantha 'Sammy' Prescott The Truman Show (1998) when Hanna Gill as Meryl Burbank Absolute Power (1997) as Kate Whitney Primal Fear (1996) as Janet Venable Congo (1995) as Dr. Karen Ross Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993) as School Teacher Dave (1993) as Randi ''Lorenzo's Oil'' (1992) as Young Teacher