Trivia

Sons Alex Wolff (b. 1997) and Nat Wolff (b. 1994) were the stars of and wrote and performed the music for Nickelodeon's hit series The Naked Brothers Band (2007), which Draper created, showran, wrote, and directed.

Wrote and produced The Tic Code (1998), which she starred in opposite Gregory Hines, and is about Tourette's Syndrome, an affliction that her husband, musician Michael Wolff, copes with, who provided the film's score.

Draper and her husband, who live in New York City, are very close family friends with Uma Thurman, Julianne Moore, Cyndi Lauper, Arsenio Hall, Tony Shalhoub, Rikki Lake, Ann Curry, jazz singer Nancy Wilson, and the entire cast of TV's Thirtysomething (1987), all of whom Draper asked to appear in her 2004 indie film, The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie (2005), before Nickelodeon bought it as the pilot for the hit Nickelodeon series of the same name.

She received an Emmy nomination for starring in the popular ABC television drama Thirtysomething (1987).

She is the daughter of Phyllis (Culbertson), a Peace Corps administrator, and William Henry Draper III, who headed the United Nations Development Programme. Her grandfather, William Henry Draper II, was a banker, army officer, and first ambassador for US NATO in Paris. Her parents were both born in New York. Polly has English, German, some Scottish, 1/128th Portuguese, and distant Welsh, Jersey (Channel Islander), and French, ancestry.

Divorced from first husband, Kevin Wade, who is a playwright, Polly was appearing on The Arsenio Hall Show (1989) when she met her current husband and the show's bandleader Michael Wolff.

Her brother is leading venture capitalist Tim Draper, of Silicon Valley, California, who was asked by his sister to provide financial incentives for The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie (2005). Tim's daughter and Polly's niece is actress Jesse Draper, who also starred in The Naked Brothers Band film and series.

Draper starred alongside John Ritter in Heartbeat (1993) and in her playwriting Getting Into Heaven (2003) at the Flea Theater. She also appeared on Monk (2002), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001), and The Big C (2010), as well as writing and starring in an episode of Bar Karma (2010). Draper's starring role in the Off Broadway production of Four Dogs and a Bone (1993) alongside Mary-Louise Parker won her a New York Magazine Award for Best Broadway Actress, and she was one of the stars of the Broadway production of Brooklyn Boy (2003) as well.

Draper wrote, directed, and starred as her boys' mother in the indie TV movie Stella's Last Weekend (2018).

She obtained her B.A. from Yale University and her M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama.

Aunt of Jesse Draper, Billy Draper and Adam Draper.

Through her mother, Polly is a descendant of Francis Cooke (c. 1583-1663), a Mayflower passenger, and captain Joseph Weld (1599-1646), one of the founders of the prominent Weld family of Massachusetts. Among Joseph Weld's other descendants are 68th Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld and actress Tuesday Weld.

Born on exactly the same date as Julie Hagerty (of Airplane! (1980) and Freddy Got Fingered (2001) fame).

Draper was raised in Chicago, Illinois and Palo Alto, California.