Debra Lynn Messing (born August 15, 1968) is an American actress. She is widely known for her television roles in Will & Grace and The Starter Wife.

Following her graduation from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Messing rose to prominence in television roles in several short-lived series, such as the Fox sitcom Ned & Stacey and the ABC's science fictional Prey. It was her casting as Grace Adler in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace which catapulted Messing to TV stardom. The series ran for eight seasons, and in 2003 she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance. She also received critical acclaim for her work as Molly Kagan in the mini-series The Starter Wife. As of 2012, she is starring as Julia Houston, a leading role in the NBC musical drama series Smash.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Debra Messing , which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0