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| Birth Name(s) : Marisa Tomei |
Date of Birth: December 4, 1964 |
| Status:
Dating
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Partner:
Dana Ashbrook |
| Profession:
Actor |
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Full Marisa Tomei Biography
Marisa Tomei was born on December 4, 1964, in Brooklyn, New York to mother Patricia "Addie" Tomei, an English teacher and father Gary Tomei, a lawyer. Marisa also has a brother, actor Adam Tomei. As a child Marisa's mother frequently corrected her speech as to eliminate her heavy Brooklyn accent. As a teen, Marisa attended Edward R. Murrow High School and graduated the class of 1982. She was one year into her college education at Boston University when she dropped out for a co-starring role on the CBS daytime drama "As the World Turns" (1956). Her role on that show paved the way for her entrance into film: in 1984, she made her film debut with a bit part in Flamingo Kid, The (1984). Three years later Marisa became known for her role as Maggie Lawton, Lisa Bonet's college roommate, on the sitcom "Different World, A" (1987).
Her real breakthrough came in 1992, when she costarred as Joe Pesci's hilariously foul-mouthed, scene-stealing girlfriend in My Cousin Vinny (1992), a performance that won her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Later that year, she turned up briefly as a snippy Mabel Normand in director Richard Attenborough's biopic Chaplin (1992), and was soon given her first starring role in Untamed Heart (1993). A subsequent starring role -- and attempted makeover into Audrey Hepburn -- in the romantic comedy Only You (1994) proved only moderately successful.
Marisa's other 1994 role as Michael Keaton's hugely pregnant wife in Paper, The (1994) was well-received, although the film as a whole was not. Fortunately for Tomei, she was able to rebound the following year with a solid performance as a troubled single mother in Nick Cassavetes Unhook the Stars (1996) which earned her a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She turned in a similarly strong work in Welcome to Sarajevo (1997), and in 1998 did some of her best work in years as the sexually liberated, unhinged cousin of Natasha Lyonne's Vivian Abramowitz in Tamara Jenkins Slums of Beverly Hills (1998). In recent years, Marisa has co-starred with Mel Gibson in the hugely successful romantic comedy What Women Want (2000) and during the 2002 movie award season, she proved her first Best Supporting Actress Oscar win was no fluke when she received her second nomination in the same category for the critically acclaimed dark drama, In the Bedroom (2001). |
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Additional Marisa Tomei Biography
Tomei was born in Brooklyn, New York to a Roman Catholic Italian-American family to Patricia, an English teacher, and Gary A. Tomei, a trial lawyer. She has a younger brother, Adam, and was partially raised by her paternal grandparents, Rita and Romeo Tomei. Tomei grew up in Midwood. While there she became captivated by the Broadway shows that her theater-loving parents took her to, and became drawn to acting as a career. After graduating from Edward R. Murrow High School she attended Boston University for a year, then transferred to New York University in 1983 after landing a role in the soap opera As The World Turns. Soon after, she dropped out of school altogether as her career began to take off.
Tomei followed up As the World Turns in 1987 with a role on the sitcom A Different World. Her breakthrough performance came in My Cousin Vinny (1992), for which she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. After her Oscar win, she received a Screen Actor's Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Female Supporting Actor for Unhook the Stars. Next, she received an American Comedy Award nomination for Funniest Supporting Actress for Slums of Beverly Hills. She was nominated for a Satellite Award as Best Supporting Actress for What Women Want.
She received a second Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for In The Bedroom (2001). Tomei has also done substantial work in the theater, including taking lead roles on Broadway in Wait Until Dark (1998) and Salomé (2003), and many Off-Broadway plays.
In 1996, Tomei made a guest appearance on the sitcom Seinfeld, playing herself in "The Cadillac, Part 1" and "2." She has also made an appearance on The Simpsons, as a movie star who falls in love with Ned Flanders. In 2005, Tomei featured in an ad campaign for Hanes with the slogan "Look who we've got our Hanes on now", featuring various other celebrities including Michael Jordan, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Damon Wayans, Matthew Perry and, on Spanish-language advertising, Aracely Arambula and Pablo Montero. |
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