Karron Graves is an American actress and teacher. She may be best known for playing Mary Warren in the 1996 screen adaptation of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, starring Daniel Day-Lewis.
Graves was born on November 30, 1973, in Janesville, Wisconsin, and spent her childhood in both Sarasota, Florida, and New York City. As a young child, Karron was a competitive swimmer and a 2-time Junior Olympics competitor.[1] She received her Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University[2] and her Master of Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama.[3]
She lives in New York with her husband, Rolando Briceno, a teacher and school administrator;[4][5] as of 2015 they had two children, daughter Jackie Jo and son Jude.[6]
On stage, she originated the role of Clara in the 1987 world premiere of Arthur Miller’s Danger:Memory! at Lincoln Center Theater, directed by Gregory Mosher.[7] Other early stage roles included Ginya in Leslie Ayvazian’s Nine Armenians at Manhattan Theatre Club.[8]
She made her television debut on Saturday Night Live in 1986 as "The Girl Scout" opposite Phil Hartman.[9] In 1987, she played the lead role of orphan girl Miranda, in the PBS television movie The Fig Tree,[10] and appeared in the main cast of the short lived 1989 series Dolphin Cove, as Katie Larson, the teenage daughter of the character played by series lead Frank Converse.[11]
Graves may be best known for playing Mary Warren, a girl accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials, as shown in the 1996 film The Crucible, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder; a review in People cited Graves for her "quietly moving performance".[12] Other television appearances include episodes of NBC’s Law & Order,[13] CBS’s Guiding Light and USA’s Monk,[13] while film appearances include The Good Shepherd, the video short 5 Wishes,[14] and Late Phases.[15]
Graves' stage credits include Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Regional Theatre productions. While at Yale, she originated the roles of Dora Hand in Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s The Muckle Man, Lizzie Booth in Trip Cullman’s Absolutely True, Sara in A. Rey Pamatmat’s Deviant, and Blanche Verse in Marcus Gardley’s ...And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi[16] She received paid training with the SITI Company to star in the 2005 world premiere of Intimations for Saxophone, directed by Anne Bogart at Arena Stage,[17] and she starred opposite James Whitmore in both 2006's Trying at Ford’s Theatre and the 70th Anniversary Celebration of Our Town in 2008.[18][19] Graves also played Isobel Ashbrook on Broadway in Helen Edmundson's 2007 Tony Award-nominated Coram Boy, directed by Melly Still,[20] and in 2012 starred Off-Broadway in The Philanderer at the New York City Center with the Pearl Theatre.[21] In 2013 she appeared in the NYTimes Critics’ Pick Two Point Oh at 59E59.[22]
In 2015, Graves won the New Hampshire Theater Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Alice Maitland in The Peterborough Players' production of The Voysey Inheritance.[23]
For the 2015-2016 season at the Roundabout Theatre Company, Karron played Mamie Gummer’s sister in the world premiere of Lindsey Ferrentino’s Ugly Lies the Bone, directed by Patricia McGregor.[24][25]
As of 2015, Graves teaches acting at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts and the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.[26]
