Lawrence began her acting career on Broadway in the 1987 revival of
Cabaret. The series was canceled after two seasons. She later returned to
NYPD Blue as a regular, and left the show in 1999, after her character was killed. Lawrence starred with
Betty White and
Alfred Molina on the short-lived sitcom
Ladies Man from 1999 to 2001. In April 2010, Lawrence joined Josh Schwartz's CBS pilot
Hitched. In October 2010, she began a recurring role on
One Tree Hill as Sylvia Baker, the mother of Julian Baker (
Austin Nichols) who comes to Tree Hill from Los Angeles to plan the upcoming wedding of Julian and Brooke Davis (
Sophia Bush). She also played the lead character mother in a Lifetime comedy-drama
Drop Dead Diva from 2009 to 2013. Also, she played the birth mother of Dr. Maura Isles (
Sasha Alexander) in the
TNT television series
Rizzoli & Isles, although in real life the actresses are only 12 years apart. In recent years, Lawrence has starred in several independent films. In 2013 she was cast in
Chris Carter's thriller drama series
The After. The show was set to premiere on
Amazon Studios in 2014. Amazon canceled the series before its premiere on January 5, 2015. In March 2015, Lawrence was cast in the ABC comedy-drama pilot
Mix. In 2017, Lawrence starred in the CBS short-lived comedy series
Me, Myself and I. The show premiered September 25 but aired only six episodes before the network pulled it from the schedule due to low ratings. Also in 2017, she had a recurring role as
Dawn-Lyen Gardner's character mother in the
Oprah Winfrey Network drama series
Queen Sugar and co-starred opposite
Sam Elliott in the second season of Netflix comedy
The Ranch. From 2016 to 2019 she had a recurring role as a real estate mogul Margo Mierzejewski in the Showtime comedy-drama series
Shameless. Lawrence later had a recurring role as
Laura Van Kirk on The CW prime time soap opera
Dynasty starting in 2018, and as Louise Garbeau on the Showtime comedy series
On Becoming a God in Central Florida in 2019. In 2021, Lawrence had recurring roles in
Punky Brewster and
Rebel. She later starred in the
Paramount+ neo-Western series,
Joe Pickett. In 2026, she will star as M'Lynn in
Steel Magnolias at
PlayMakers Repertory Company. ==Personal life==