Soap Opera
30 Years Ago, ‘General Hospital’ Fans Met the Legal Eagle Who’d Become a Port Charles Legend
Nancy Lee Grahn has played Alexis Davis on ‘General Hospital’ since 1996, winning two Daytime Emmy Awards while balancing a remarkable decades-long career and single motherhood.
For three decades, Daytime Emmy winner Nancy Lee Grahn has been entertaining General Hospital audiences as Alexis Davis, aka Natasha Cassadine, the crusading attorney who is a member of a Greek-Russian royal family she’d rather forget.
Grahn made her debut as Alexis on September 26, 1996, and Port Charles hasn’t been the same since. Over the last 30 years, Alexis has seen her share of love interests, including Ned Quartermaine (Wally Kurth), Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard), Ric Lansing (Rick Hearst), and Julian Jerome (William deVry), three of whom fathered her three daughters. She has also posed as a man for months, run over several men with her car, and beaten cancer.
During the last year, Grahn has taken Alexis on a journey no mother ever wants to go through. She lost her daughter, Sam (Kelly Monaco), toward the end of 2024, and since then, her goal has been protecting her two motherless grandchildren. She hasn’t had a love interest in several years, but Alexis often proves that soap characters do not need a man to stay viable, especially when they are formidable women.
Since debuting as Alexis in 1996, Grahn has won two Daytime Emmy Awards, in both the supporting and lead actress categories, winning as lead just last year. She had previously earned an Emmy as Julia Wainwright on NBC’s Santa Barbara in 1987, per IMDb.
During her acceptance speech in 2025, she thanked GH for making both her personal and professional dreams come true.
“At 39, I wanted to be a mom … so I called General Hospital,” she said, per PEOPLE. “I was able to do what I love and raise the person I love most in the world … without missing anything … so thank you, ABC, for giving me a home, so I could give one to Kate.”
During her time on GH, Grahn raised her daughter Kate on her own as a single mom. Kate is now a singer and musician with her own recording career. Like Alexis, Grahn is ever the doting mother, constantly championing her girl. On her official website, Grahn describes her daughter as such: “I birthed her & take no credit for her talent and, more importantly, her beautiful soul. She came in that way.”
