Sarah Rafferty

Sarah Rafferty got the part that defined her career because a co-star sent her the script. Gabriel Macht, who played Harvey Specter, passed her the pages for Suits and encouraged her to take the role of Donna Paulsen [7]. It was her first job as a series regular [6]. By 2018 she had spent eight years in the role [3].

Rafferty was born on 6 December 1972 [6] [8], which makes her {age} in 2026. Today she is known to a newer audience as Dr. Katherine Walter in the Netflix series My Life with the Walter Boys [1], and as the co-host of a podcast about the show that made her famous [2].

Early life and education

Rafferty was born in New Canaan, Connecticut, according to Rotten Tomatoes and Famous Birthdays [6] [8]. TV Guide gives Greenwich, Connecticut as her birthplace instead [7]. The sources disagree, and we have not found a primary record that settles it. The full name on TV Guide's profile is Sarah Gray Rafferty [7].

Rotten Tomatoes describes her as raised in an artistic family, and says her father was an oil painter [6]. She went to Phillips Academy, then to Hamilton College, and then to the Yale School of Drama [6]. At Hamilton she double majored in English and Theatre and graduated magna cum laude [7]. At Yale she earned a Master of Fine Arts [1]. Her representation describes her as originally from the East Coast [1].

Yale is also where she met her future husband. USA Network reports that the couple met there while she was earning her MFA in acting [5].

Stage and early screen work

Before Suits, Rafferty worked steadily in television and occasionally in film during the 2000s [6]. Her agency lists starring and recurring roles on Six Feet Under, Law & Order, CSI, Without a Trace and Samantha Who? [1]. USA Network adds Charmed, Tremors, 8 Simple Rules, Numb3rs and Bones to the list of TV credits [5]. She also appeared opposite Gena Rowlands in the television film What If God Were the Sun [1].

On film, Rotten Tomatoes lists Speakeasy (2002), Falling for Grace (2006), The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and Four Single Fathers (2009) [6]. The site rates The Devil Wears Prada as her highest-rated film [6]. USA Network also names Browse, from 2020 [5].

Her stage work is less often mentioned. According to her representation, she has worked with the Roundabout, Second Stage, the Old Globe, the Huntington and Shakespeare and Company [1]. TV Guide notes that she appeared in the play The Third Story [7].

How she got Suits

TV Guide's profile says she got the role of Donna Paulsen after Gabriel Macht sent her the script and encouraged her to take it [7]. Rotten Tomatoes calls it her first series regular role [6].

In a March 2014 interview with Collider, during the show's third season, Rafferty described Donna as the firm's secretary with a great deal of influence [4]. She called the character "the emotional glue" holding the others together [4]. She said Donna is loyal to Harvey, close to Rachel, a "mother hen" to Mike and has a close dynamic with Louis [4]. On how far the role might go, she said: "I didn't know. You never know what's gonna happen. It was a leap of faith." [4]

The character changed over the years. In a 2018 interview with S Magazine, Rafferty said that after the US presidential election, show creator Aaron Korsh wrote Donna into a partner role and made her chief operating officer, a change she had asked for [3]. She described Donna's tailored wardrobe as armour and said Donna's power comes from her femininity rather than from imitating men [3]. She also said she values hearing from viewers about what Donna means to them, especially women who send supportive messages while episodes air [3]. At the end of the series Donna marries Harvey, a fictional storyline that Hello! mentions when it looks at where the cast are now [11].

Career timeline

• Before 2006: guest and recurring TV roles, including Six Feet Under, Law & Order and Charmed [1] [5].
• 2002: film Speakeasy [6].
• 2006: films Falling for Grace and The Devil Wears Prada [6].
• 2009: film Four Single Fathers [6].
• 2018: about eight years into playing Donna Paulsen on Suits [3].
• 2019: Suits ends, and she takes a recurring role as Suzanne on Grey's Anatomy [11].
• 2020: film Browse [5].
• Season 7 of Chicago Med: Dr. Pamela Blake, a role she left in the season 8 premiere [5].
• 2024: announced as co-host of Sidebar [9].
• 2025: Emmy nomination for My Life with the Walter Boys [7].
• 2026: returns for season 3 of My Life with the Walter Boys [10].

Best-known work

Year	Title	Role
2006	The Devil Wears Prada (film)	Film credit, role not named in our sources [6]
Until 2019	Suits (USA Network)	Donna Paulsen [11] [4]
2019	Grey's Anatomy	Suzanne, recurring [11]
Season 7	Chicago Med	Dr. Pamela Blake [5]
2024 to 2025	Sidebar: A Suits Watch Podcast	Co-host and co-creator [2] [9]
2026 (season 3)	My Life with the Walter Boys	Dr. Katherine Walter [10]

Awards

Rafferty is described by her representation as an Emmy-nominated actress [1]. TV Guide specifies a 2025 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Performer in a Preschool, Children's or Young Teen Program, for her work in My Life with the Walter Boys [7]. We found no award win on the sources we could open.

Relationships

Rafferty is married to Aleksanteri Olli-Pekka Seppälä. USA Network reports that they met at Yale and married on 23 June 2001 at the Roman Catholic Church of St. Mary in Greenwich, Connecticut [5]. In 2021, for their 20th anniversary, she posted a wedding photo captioned "Thank you for the 'hope, coffee, and poetry.'" [5]

According to the same report, Seppälä's family is from Finland and he grew up in Illinois. He holds a Yale degree and an MBA from the Wharton School, and works in strategy and business development at the Angeleno Group in Los Angeles [5]. He is described as very private [5].

The couple have two daughters, Oona Gray, born in 2007, and Iris Friday, born in 2012 [5]. Her agency confirms two daughters [1], and in 2018 Rafferty said she had to try not to cry when she talked about her daughters while discussing the changes for women in film [3]. We found no reliably reported earlier public relationships, and we do not repeat rumours. The family splits its time between the East and West Coasts [1].

Advocacy and public life

Rafferty's agency lists work outside acting. She is an ambassador for War Child and for Plan Canada's "Because I am a Girl" campaign, which promotes gender equality and the rights of girls and women, and she has visited Ghana with Plan [1]. For more than a decade she has also advocated for Alzheimer's research, brain health and caregivers, including hosting galas for the Alzheimer's Association [1]. She is an ambassador for HFC and The Brain Project, has joined When We All Vote, and has met U.S. senators and the Second Gentleman in Washington, D.C. [1]

In the 2018 S Magazine interview she described being a partner in Share Her Journey, the Toronto International Film Festival campaign that promotes women in film, and a brand ambassador for Marc Cain [3]. She said TIFF's mentorship programmes aim for equal male and female participation: "They're actually doing it." [3] TV Guide adds that she was a guest at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, her former Suits co-star [7].

What she does now

After Suits ended in 2019, Rafferty took a recurring role as Suzanne on Grey's Anatomy [11]. USA Network reports that she played Dr. Pamela Blake on season 7 of Chicago Med and left in the season 8 premiere [5].

Her main screen job is My Life with the Walter Boys, in which she plays the family matriarch, Dr. Katherine Walter [11]. What's on Netflix reports that season 3 arrives worldwide on 6 August 2026 with 10 new episodes, and that Rafferty returns in the role [10]. Her representation says the show was renewed early for a fourth season [1].

She also hosts a podcast. In June 2024 ANI reported that Rafferty and Patrick J. Adams, who played Mike Ross, would co-create and co-host Sidebar: A Suits Watch Podcast for SiriusXM's Stitcher Studios [9]. In a statement they said, "It feels like the perfect time to rewatch the show that changed our lives." [9] The podcast listing says they are watching the series for the first time, recapping episodes, sharing stories from the set and interviewing cast members and other guests [2]. Its launch trailer announces a start on Tuesday, 24 September, and the listing gives the active years as 2024 to 2025 [2].

Net worth and height

Searches for her net worth and height return many pages, but we could not find a dated net worth estimate from a named outlet, and the height figures we saw conflict. In line with our editorial rules, this page states neither.

Sources and gaps

The most useful primary material is her agency biography [1], the podcast listing [2] and two on-record interviews [4] [3]. Details about her marriage rest on USA Network's report [5], with her agency and her own 2018 remarks confirming the two daughters [1] [3].