Background
Boyle was born in Davenport, Iowa, the daughter of Sally, a clerical worker, assistant, and manager, and Michael L. Boyle.
Boyle was born in Davenport, Iowa, the daughter of Sally, a clerical worker, assistant, and manager, and Michael L. Boyle.
She graduated from The Chicago Academy for the Arts.
She is best known for her performances as Donna Hayward in Twin Peaks and Assistant District Attorney Helen Gamble in The Practice. She has also appeared in films including Happiness and Men in Black World War II Her paternal grandfather was United States. Representative Charles A. She has German, Irish, and Italian ancestry. She is named after a character in Boris Pasternak"s novel Doctor Zhivago.
She was raised in Chicago, Illinois and Wisconsin.
Boyle"s first film role was a bit part in Ferris Bueller"s Day Office (1986), which earned her a Screen Actors Guild card, though her scenes were deleted from the final cut of the film. She then appeared in the mini-series Amerika (1987) and feature film Poltergeist III (1988).
Although she was cast in Dead Poets Society (1989), her scenes were deleted. Her first major role was as Donna Hayward in the critically acclaimed television series Twin Peaks.
When the series ended in 1991, creator David Lynch produced a movie, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Maine, but Boyle did not return.
In November 2015, it was revealed that she will not be reprising the role for the third season set to air in 2017. Some of Boyle"s most notable roles during the 1990s: Stacy in Wayne"s World (1992) Heather in Where The Day Takes You (1992) Kris Bolin in The Temporary (1993) Suzanne of Red Rock West (1993) Alex in the comedy Threesome (1994) Marianne Byron in Afterglow (1997) Helen Jordan in Happiness (1998) Although she lost out to Calista Flockhart, the actress impressed Kelley enough to create the role of Assistant District Attorney Helen Gamble in his other 1997 series, The Practice, specifically for her. She starred on that show until 2003, when, in a dramatic attempt to revamp the show and cut costs, she was dismissed along with most of the cast.
Foreign her performance as Helen Gamble, she received an Emmy nomination as well as several Screen Actors Guild ensemble cast nominations.
In 2002, Boyle played a lead role in the blockbuster feature film Men in Black II as the villainous shapeshifting alien Serleena. She also guest-starred on one of the last episodes of Ally McBeal, this time as Tally Cupp, and had a recurring role on several episodes of Huff.
In 2005, Boyle joined the cast of Las Vegas for a seven-episode stint as Monica Mancuso, a new hotel owner. She played Barbara Amiel in the television true story Shades of Black, about Amiel"s controversial husband, Lord Conrad Black.
Boyle also guest-starred as an ambitious reporter involved with the suspects in a possible murder in the Law & Order 2008 episode "Submission".
Married Donald Ray Thomas, December 18, 2006.