Abigail Savage

Abigail Savage was born in New York City to Tereze Glück, vice president of Citibank for her entire career of over thirty years, and also a fiction writer.[5][6][7] Glück bought a home in 2015 in Cherry Grove, a hamlet on Fire Island, where Savage would stay during her breaks.[8] Glück's sister is Nobel laureate poet Louise Glück.[5] Her grandmother, Beatrice Glück went to Wellesley College in Massachusetts in a time when it was uncommon for women to attend college, and majored in French.[9]

Her father is an audiophile and started her interests in sound technology.[10] She would go to his apartment when she was twelve and he would show off his system and classical records, including the turntable for vinyl records.[10] He was always upgrading his system.[10]

Savage was a theatre major and graduated from Williams College, a liberal arts college in Massachusetts, in 1998.[11]

When Savage graduated from Williams College, the head of the drama department advised, "Be patient!", it's the same advice Savage gave to other aspiring women in the acting industry.[12][13] Savage has had several New York City theater roles: Dido, Queen of Carthage at The Ohio Theatre (2001);[14] Demon Baby at The Ohio Theater (2002);[15] Silence at The Ohio Theater (2002);[16] Seven in One Blow or The Brave Little Kid at the Axis Theatre (2004);[17][18] Hospital 2005 at the Axis Theatre (2005); and a mathematical savant in The Five Hysterical Girls Theorem at The Connelly Theater (2000).[19][20]

Savage is a sound designer, and sound editor.[21] She got interested in the sound editing industry to support her between acting jobs, and fell in love with the work.[4] Her roommate in the summer after college complained of having too many internships, one for a post production sound studio.[3] She did sound for the senior production at college so took the position.[3] She says that her sound designer work complements her acting as it teaches the importance of consistency in takes, and handling the props the same way each time.[3] One of the companies she works for is Dig It Audio a "boutique audio mix and post production house in New York City for film, gaming and television".[10]

According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Savage's unique Hollywood resume also includes a long list of sound editing credits ...includ[ing] the 2010 financial documentary Inside Job (for which she shared a Motion Picture Sound Editors nomination)".[22] As of July 2015, she has seventy-five sound credits.[4] Her credits include: Game 6 (2005),[23] Man Push Cart (2005),[24] Half Nelson (2006),[4] The Last Winter (2006),[25] Joshua (2007),[26] Where God Left His Shoes (2007),[27] Sugar (2008),[28][29] Chop Shop (2008),[30] Goodbye Solo (2008),[31] Plastic Bag (2009),[3] Inside Job (2010),[32] The Tillman Story (2010),[33] The Greater Good (2011),[34] The Kite (2011),[35] At Any Price (2012),[36] Dear Mandela (2012),[37] Sleepwalk With Me (2012),[38] Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon (2013),[4] Ivory Tower (2014),[39] Mississippi Grind (2015),[40] (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies (2015),[41] Complete Unknown (2016),[42] First Monday in May (2016),[21] Don't Think Twice (2016),[43] and Thank You for Playing (2015).[44]

Savage joined the cast of Jenji Kohan's Netflix series Orange Is the New Black in 2013 as "kitchen-bound" inmate Gina Murphy at a minimum-security women's prison.[22][45] She said of the role that she had worked for years "to get anywhere, somewhere, before Orange fell into her lap."[12] She originally auditioned for the role of Nicky Nichols but that went to Natasha Lyonne; but the producers found the Gina role for her.[3] The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison.[45] In the fifth season, the show had a prison riot and it was ended by a correctional emergency response team (CERT) who "dragged inmates outside and loaded them onto buses", her character surrendered with a handful of other inmates.[46] Her character was transferred from Litchfield to FDC Cleveland in Ohio along with a number of other inmates.[47][48] In 2017 the cast won the Screen Actor Guild (SAG) Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series; they had previously won for season's two and three.[49][50] In 2018 the cast was nominated for the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance By An Ensemble In A Comedy Series.[51]

Savage is Jewish.[52] Savage is married to Caitlin McElroy, with whom she has a daughter.[53][54][55] They eloped and married in a tuxedo shop in Bennington, Vermont, before same-sex marriages became legal in their home state of New York in 2011.[lower-alpha 1][1] The shop owner was the presiding justice of the peace.[1]

She is the niece of Nobel laureate poet Louise Glück.[5]

• Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (2003) as Dot.[56]
• Redacted (2007) as Tattooed Kid.[57]
• The Return of Jezebel James (2008) as Minnie (2 episodes).[30]
• Precious (2009) as Bunny.[58]
• Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (2006) as The Master Baiter
• Jim (2010) as human clone #3774.[59][60][61]
• Orange is the New Black (2013-2017, 2019) as Gina Murphy.[45]
• Time Out of Mind (2014) as Sabrina.[62]
• Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (2016) as Sister Nina.[63]
• What We Do in the Shadows (2020) as Tonya.[64]
• The Spine of Night (2021) as Kestrelwren (voice).

• 2011, Motion Picture Sound Editors, Golden Reel Award [Nominee] for Best Sound Editing - Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue, ADR and Music in a Feature Documentary for Inside Job (2010)[22][65]
• 2015–2018, won three Screen Actors Guild Awards for being in the cast of Orange Is the New Black, and was nominated again in 2018.[50][51][56]

• Kaite, Berkeley (2019-04-01). Menstruation Now What Does Blood Perform?. Demeter Press. ISBN 978-1-77258-234-5.

• Abigail Savage at IMDb
• Abigail Savage on Twitter