Elizabeth Perkins is an Emmy- and Golden Globe award-nominated American film, television and theater actress. She was born in Queens, New York City, the daughter of Jo Williams, a drug treatment counselor and concert pianist, and James Perkins, a farmer, writer and businessman. Her paternal grandparents were Greek immigrants from Salonika who anglicized their surname from "Pisperikos" to "Perkins" when they immigrated to the United States. Perkins was raised in Vermont; her parents divorced in 1963. After finishing high school at Northfield Mount Hermon School she spent three years in Chicago studying acting at the famous Goodman School of Drama. In 1984, she made her theatrical debut on Broadway in Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs", and afterward worked in a number of ensemble companies, including The New York Shakespeare Festival and the Steppenwolf Theater. She has always considered theater work to be a priority in her career.

She was listed as one of the twelve "Promising New Actors of 1986" in John Willis' Screen World, and she has since landed numerous film roles. Perkins made her film debut in 1986 in Edward Zwick's About Last Night... and had a career breakthrough co-starring with Tom Hanks in Big. She received critical acclaim for her performance in Barry Levinson's Avalon, and was the stand-out actor opposite William Hurt in The Doctor (1991), in which she received critical acclaim for her performance as a terminal cancer patient.

In 1993, Perkins made her television debut in For Their Own Good. She later starred in the comedy series Battery Park and If These Walls Could Talk, and has since regularly appeared in television films. Recently, Perkins appeared as a psychiatrist in the 2005 suspense thriller, The Ring Two, starring Naomi Watts

Since 2005, Perkins has played Celia Hodes, upstanding PTA mother, alongside Mary-Louise Parker and Justin Kirk on the Showtime series Weeds. Thanks to her work on Weeds, Perkins has received two Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series, Miniseries or Made for TV Motion Picture (in 2006 and 2007). She has also been nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. At a screening of the season 2 finale of Weeds, at the Museum of TV and Radio on October 25, 2006, Perkins said that she considers playing Celia Hodes her favorite role in her career because she is so different from characters she is usually cast. The show's fourth season aired in 2008, with two more seasons recently confirmed by Showtime.