Frasier: What Niles Actor David Hyde Pierce Looks Like Today
Kelsey Grammer's Frasier Crane may have been the star and namesake of "Frasier," but as his snooty brother Niles, David Hyde Pierce was in many ways the lifeblood of the series. That's evident when looking at the actor's accolades. During the show's run from 1993 to 2004, Pierce earned 11 consecutive Emmy nominations for supporting actor in a comedy series, winning four.
The "Frasier" creators hired Pierce on the strength of his performance in the short-lived sitcom "The Powers That Be," produced by television juggernaut Norman Lear. "We'd just done 'Wings' and didn't want to do another brothers show," "Frasier" co-creator David Lee told Vanity Fair. "But we looked at the footage and just fell in love with him." It also didn't hurt that the two actors looked alike.
Pierce was still a young actor when he made his "Frasier" debut in 1993, and after the series ended, he had several prominent stage roles. He appeared in "Spamalot" in 2005, "Curtains" in 2007 (which earned him a Tony award), "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" in 2013, and "Hello, Dolly!" in 2017. Aside from his Broadway appearances, Pierce has maintained a relatively low profile since "Frasier" ended. Now, he has his most prominent television role in years in Max's "Julia."
David Hyde Pierce currently stars in Julia
David Hyde Pierce made his first return to primetime TV in a decade in 2014 with "The Good Wife." Pierce joined the series in Season 6 as Frank Prady, a TV personality-turned-political opponent to Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies). Pierce ultimately appeared in eight episodes and was praised for his performance, which The Atlantic's David Sims called "smart and canny yet still sympathetic." Following "The Good Wife," he reprised his role as Henry in the "Wet Hot American Summer" spinoff series and appeared in the ABC miniseries "When We Rise."
In 2022, Pierce began portraying Julia Child's (Sarah Lancashire) husband, Paul, in the Max series "Julia." It marks his most prominent TV role since "Frasier." "Julia" is a treat for fans of the sitcom, as it reunites Pierce and fellow "Frasier" alum Bebe Neuwirth, who played Lilith. Neuwirth stars as Avis DeVoto, Julia's best friend who often butts heads with Paul. In real life, the actors were excited to collaborate again. "The idea that we'd be working together and stuck in Boston together for a while?" Neuwirth recalled to Variety. "That was thrilling."
For Pierce, the mini "Frasier" reunion adequately scratched an itch. The actor had no interest in returning as Niles for the rebooted "Frasier" series on Paramount+. "Because it's so valuable to me, I also wouldn't do it just [to] do it," he told Vulture. "And I believe it can be done without me, too — finding new stories to tell, in the same way that 'Frasier' did after 'Cheers.'"