Born in Boston, Tierney attended Notre Dame Academy in Hingham, all-girls, Catholic high school, and has always been interested in the dramatic arts, attending New York University and Circle-in-the-Square Theatre School.
Her stage credits include “Rosencrantz and Guildenstein Are Dead”, “The Bald Soprano”, “Baby with Bathwater”, “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea”, “Talking With” and in 2006 starred along side Fran Drescher, Eric McCormack and Brooke Smith in Neil Labutes “Some Girls”.
Her first starring role was in the comedy series “704 Hauser Street”. Tierney’s additional credits include starring in the television films “out of Darkness”, “Student Exchange” and “Crossing the Mob”. She guest-starred in the series “Growing Pains (from which she was fired)”, “Family Ties” and NBC’s “Law & Order.” From 1994 – 1999 Maura starred in NBC sitcom “Newsradio”, which co-starred Dave Foley and Phil Hartman.
Soon, Maura will be leaving “ER” in it’s final season, in which she has had a permanent role for 9 years playing nurse turned doctor, Abby Lockhart. Maura was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2001 for Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series for this role.
Maura has also starred alongside some of the biggest actors in Hollywood, with films such as “Forces of Nature”, with Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock, opposite Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding in “Instinct”. Alongside John Travolta and Emma Thompson in “Primary Colors”, and opposite Jim Carrey in “Liar, Liar”. In 2001 she was seen in “Scotland, PA”, written and directed by her now ex-husband Billy Morrissette.. Her most recent movie roles are “Baby Mama”, with Tina Fey, “Finding Amanda” co starring Matthew Broderick, and Will Ferrell’s fun basketball flick, “Semi-Pro”.
You can currently see Maura in Nicky Silver’s play “Three Changes” alongside Dylan McDermott, in a limited run from August 22nd to September 28th.
ER’s 15th and final season starts late September. Maura will appear in the first 3 episodes.