The Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play is an honor presented at the Tony Awards, a ceremony established in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, to actresses for quality supporting roles in a Broadway play. The awards are named after Antoinette Perry, an American actress who died in 1946. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, to "honor the best performances and stage productions of the previous year." The award was originally called the Tony Award for Actress, Supporting or Featured (Dramatic). Patricia Neal won the first such award for her portrayal of Regina Hubbard in Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest. Before 1956, nominees' names were not made public: the change was made by the awards committee to "have a greater impact on theatregoers". The award was renamed in 1976, when Shirley Knight became the first winner under the new title for her role as Carla in Robert Patrick's Kennedy's Children. Its most recent recipient is Miriam Silverman for the role of Mavis Parodus Bryson, in The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window. Six actresses (Christine Baranski, Judith Ivey, Judith Light, Swoosie Kurtz, Audra McDonald, and Frances Sternhagen) hold the record for most awards in this category, each with two total. Portrayals of Ruth Younger in A Raisin in the Sun and Mavis Parodus Bryson in The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window have won twice.

Winners and nominees

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Statistics

Most wins

• Christine Baranski • Judith Ivey • Swoosie Kurtz • Judith Light (consecutive) • Audra McDonald • Frances Sternhagen

Most nominations

• ; 5 nominations • Frances Sternhagen • ; 4 nominations • Dana Ivey • Celia Keenan-Bolger • ; 3 nominations • Elizabeth Franz • Eileen Heckart • Jayne Houdyshell • Judith Ivey • Swoosie Kurtz • Judith Light • Condola Rashād • Marian Seldes • Lois Smith • Zoë Wanamaker • Julie White • Kara Young • ; 2 nominations • Jane Alexander • Rae Allen • Christine Baranski • Leora Dana • Viola Davis • Johanna Day • Linda Emond • Fionnula Flanagan • Alice Ghostley • Mary Beth Hurt • Zohra Lampert • Linda Lavin • Anna Manahan • Jan Maxwell • Audra McDonald • Laurie Metcalf • Debra Monk • Rosemary Murphy • Cynthia Nixon • Martha Plimpton • Amy Ryan • Carole Shelley • Maureen Stapleton • Margaret Tyzack

Character win total

Character nomination total

• ; 3 nominations • Brooke Ashton from Noises Off • Honey from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? • Mavis Parodus Bryson from The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window • ; 2 nominations • Bananas Shaughnessy from The House of Blue Leaves • Beneatha Younger from A Raisin in the Sun • Beverly from The Shadow Box • Big Mama Pollitt from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof • Birdie Hubbard from The Little Foxes • Charlotte from The Real Thing • Hannah Pitt (and others) from Angels in America • Harper Pitt (and others) from Angels in America • Lady Gay Spanker from London Assurance • Lady in Red from For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf • Lavinia Penniman from The Heiress • Linda Loman from Death of a Salesman • Madge Kendal from The Elephant Man • Maria Merelli from Lend Me a Tenor • Marthy Owen from Anna Christie • Mrs. Muller from Doubt • Ruth Younger from A Raisin in the Sun

Productions with multiple featured nominations

boldface=Winner • Separate Tables – Beryl Measor and Phyllis Neilson-Terry • Butterflies Are Free – Blythe Danner and Eileen Heckart • Absurd Person Singular – Geraldine Page and Carole Shelley • The Shadow Box – Patricia Elliott and Rose Gregorio • Bedroom Farce – Joan Hickson and Susan Littler • Crimes of the Heart – Mia Dillon and Mary Beth Hurt • Hurlyburly – Judith Ivey and Sigourney Weaver • The House of Blue Leaves – Stockard Channing and Swoosie Kurtz • Joe Turner's Come and Gone – Kimberleigh Aarn, L. Scott Caldwell and Kimberly Scott • Our Country's Good – Amelia Campbell and J. Smith-Cameron • Angels in America: Millennium Approaches – Kathleen Chalfant and Marcia Gay Harden • Dancing at Lughnasa – Brid Brennan, Rosaleen Linehan and Dearbhla Molloy • Picnic – Debra Monk and Anne Pitoniak • Seven Guitars – Viola Davis and Michele Shay • The Last Night of Ballyhoo – Dana Ivey and Celia Weston • Morning's at Seven – Elizabeth Franz, Estelle Parsons and Frances Sternhagen • Dinner at Eight – Christine Ebersole and Marian Seldes • A Raisin in the Sun – Sanaa Lathan and Audra McDonald • Doubt: A Parable – Heather Goldenhersh and Adriane Lenox • The Coast of Utopia – Jennifer Ehle and Martha Plimpton • The Norman Conquests – Jessica Hynes and Amanda Root • A View from the Bridge – Jessica Hecht and Scarlett Johansson • A Raisin in the Sun – Sophie Okonedo and Anika Noni Rose • Noises Off – Megan Hilty and Andrea Martin • A Doll's House, Part 2 – Jayne Houdyshell and Condola Rashād • Sweat – Johanna Day and Michelle Wilson (Both this and A Doll's House, Part 2 were nominated the same year) • Angels in America – Susan Brown and Denise Gough • Slave Play – Chalia La Tour and Annie McNamara • Clyde's – Uzo Aduba and Kara Young • POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive – Rachel Dratch and Julie White (Both this and Clyde's were nominated the same year) • Cost of Living – Katy Sullivan and Kara Young • Stereophonic – Juliana Canfield and Sarah Pidgeon

Multiple awards and nominations

Trivia