Who Is Andre Braugher's Wife, Ami Brabson?

Andre Braugher was a fan-favorite character actor known for his velveteen voice and no-nonsense characters. From Chief Raymond Holt in "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," Woodchuck Coodchuck-Berkowitz in "BoJack Horseman," or Detective Frank Pembleton in "Homicide: Life on the Street," we could always expect Braugher to capture the magic. That was true whether or not we ever saw his face, as fellow "BoJack" fans can attest with the finicky Mayor Coodchuck-Berkowitz.

While Braugher's characters were so frequently the voices of reason and wisdom, another in his life held that light for him before his death on December 11, 2023. Fellow actor Ami Brabson, Braugher's wife, was also his confidant. Big moves like his Broadway debut in "Birthday Candles" were always made through his wife's input and support. 

"We're like-minded; we grew up in similar neighborhoods; we share the same values," Braugher said of his wife to Variety. "She knows me like the back of her hand, and I'm grateful for that." So, who is this woman thought of so highly by Chief Holt himself?

Although her husband, Andre Braugher, carried a heftier load of on-screen credits, Ami Brabson is no slouch. Brabson's work both on stage and screen is widely varied, from the iconic stageplay "Fences" to the NBC drama "Law & Order," according to her official bio. Brabson holds an MFA from Tisch, one of the foremost acting programs in the country. Brabson and Braugher met while studying at Julliard together. They premiered a play in New York together in 2014, "Tough Titty" at the Paradise Factory, in which the couple performed. Outside of acting, she's even known as a cabaret singer.

Her best-known role, however, is arguably that of Mary Pembleton in "Homicide: Life on the Street." That's right, she played alongside her real-life husband as his on-screen wife as well. Braugher told The Washington Post that he enjoyed working alongside his wife. "I think she's a fine actress," he told the outlet. "We already have a history together and we understand each other so we communicate very easily. We have similar tastes about what is good and bad in the course of a scene and we agree about the complexities of each of our characters and things seem to go quite well and I enjoy it a lot."

After getting married in 1991, Ami Brabson and her husband, Andre Braugher, set out to have a family together, per Hello! Together they shared three sons: Michael, Isaiah, and John Wesley. Like his parents, Michael attended Julliard and is following in their acting footsteps. 

Brabson and Braugher called New Jersey home, even when he had filmed "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" in LA. "I made a choice along the way that Ami and those boys were too important to not spend quantity time with," Braugher told Variety in 2020. "Both the health crisis and the democracy crisis that we're going through demonstrate to me that there's no substance in the bling. The focus on celebrity-ness — it's not real. So I just chose, in my own way, to sort of drop out." Clearly, Brabson and Braugher found a way to carefully balance incredible acting careers and parenthood.