DAVID HYDE PIERCE (Professor Neuman) has won three Emmy awards as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his portrayal of Dr. Niles Crane in the multi-Emmy Award-winning NBC comedy hit "Frasier," which begins its ninth season this fall. In addition to the Emmy honors, Pierce has received several American Comedy Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Award, the Viewers for Quality Television Award, and the Television Critics Association Award.

His previous television credits include a starring role in the NBC series "The Powers That Be," and guest-starring roles in NBC's "Crime Story," ABC's "Spenser: For Hire," and Showtime's "The Outer Limits" (for which he won a CableACE Award). In 1999, he hosted "The 51st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards."

Pierce made his film debut in James Bridges' "Bright Lights, Big City," and continued to work with an acclaimed group of directors, including Joan Micklin Silver (on "Crossing Delancey"), Jodie Foster (on her feature directorial debut, "Little Man Tate"), Terry Gilliam (on "The Fisher King"), Nora Ephron (on "Sleepless in Seattle"), Mike Nichols (on "Wolf"), Oliver Stone (on "Nixon," as John Dean), Andrew Bergman (on "Isn't She Great"), and John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton (on the animated smash "a bug's life"). He recently completed voiceover work on the much-anticipated animated feature "Osmosis Jones," which is scheduled for an August release.

Upon graduation from Yale in 1981, Pierce secured his first professional acting job in the Broadway production of Christopher Durang's "Beyond Therapy," co-starring John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest. His next Broadway role was opposite Christine Lahti in Wendy Wasserstein's award-winning "The Heidi Chronicles." Off-Broadway, Pierce appeared in numerous plays, including Mike Nichols' production of Jules Feiffer's "Elliot Loves," Peter Brook's production of "The Cherry Orchard," Richard Greenberg's "The Author's Voice," and New York Shakespeare Festival stagings of "Much Ado About Nothing," and "Hamlet." Last fall he made his return to the stage, starring in the Los Angeles production of "The Boys from Syracuse." Last summer her starred opposite Uta Hagen in Los Angeles in the two-person play "Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks." The play will soon be coming to New York.