Felicity Huffman is an actress.
Felicity Kendall Huffman ( born December 9 , 1962 ) is an American film , stage , and television actress . Huffman began her acting career in theatre and in the 1990s also had many supporting roles in film and television . She is best known for her role as Lynette Scavo in the long-running ABC comedy-drama Desperate Housewives ( 2004 -- 2012 ) , for which she earned a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the debut season of the series and three Screen Actors Guild Awards overall . Since 2015 , she has started in a third ABC series , the anthology crime drama American Crime , for which she has received critical acclaim including a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie nomination . The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City .