Marisa Tomei

Marisa Tomei is an American actress born on December 4, 1964, in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, to Gary A. Tomei, a trial lawyer, and Adelaide Tomei, née Bianchi, an English teacher. Both parents are of Italian descent; her father's family traces roots to Tuscany, Calabria, and Campania, while her mother's ancestors came from Tuscany and Sicily. Tomei has a younger brother, actor Adam Tomei, and was partly raised by her paternal grandparents. She graduated from Edward R. Murrow High School in 1982 and subsequently attended Boston University for one year. Growing up, she was taken to Broadway shows by her theater-loving parents, an experience that drew her toward acting as a career. As a student at Andries Hudde Junior High School, she played Hedy LaRue in a production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and also attended the Albee School of Dance.

Tomei began her professional career with a recurring role on the soap opera As the World Turns from 1983 to 1985, followed by a main role as Maggie Lauten during the first season of the sitcom A Different World in 1987. Her film debut came in the 1984 comedy The Flamingo Kid, in which she played a waitress named Mandy. She also appeared in a minor capacity in The Toxic Avenger and had a small role in the 1986 film Playing for Keeps. On stage, she was a founding member of the Naked Angels Theater Company. Her stage debut came in 1987 in the off-Broadway production of John Morgan Evans' Daughters, in which she played Cetta, a performance that earned her the Theatre World Award for outstanding debut on stage. She continued off-Broadway with roles in Beirut in 1987, Sharon and Billy in 1988, and What the Butler Saw in 1989, and also portrayed Rosa Delle Rose in The Rose Tattoo at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.

International prominence came with her comedic performance as Mona Lisa Vito in the 1992 film My Cousin Vinny, opposite Joe Pesci. The role earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 1993 ceremony, where she prevailed over Miranda Richardson, Joan Plowright, Vanessa Redgrave, and Judy Davis. That same year she appeared as silent film star Mabel Normand in Chaplin, alongside Robert Downey Jr. Subsequent film credits included the romantic drama Untamed Heart with Christian Slater, the comedy-drama The Paper in 1994, and Unhook the Stars, for which she received a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Female Supporting Actor. In 1998 she appeared in the independent feature Slums of Beverly Hills. Later notable films include What Women Want in 2000, Danika in 2006, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and Wild Hogs in 2007, The Wrestler in 2008, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, The Ides of March and Crazy, Stupid, Love in 2011, Parental Guidance in 2012, The Big Short in 2015, and The King of Staten Island in 2020. She also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for In the Bedroom in 2001. Beginning with Captain America: Civil War in 2016, Tomei portrayed May Parker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a role she continued through Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021.

Tomei made her Broadway debut in 1998, playing Susy Hendrix in the revival of Frederick Knott's Wait Until Dark at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, opposite Quentin Tarantino. Her subsequent Broadway appearances include Salome, Top Girls in 2008, for which she received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play, and The Realistic Joneses in 2014, for which she received a special Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance. She returned to Broadway in 2019 in a revival of The Rose Tattoo. Her Broadway career spans credits from 1998 to 2019.