Marisa Tomei

Marisa Tomei (Brooklyn, December 4, 1964) is an American film, theater and television actress. Following her work on As the World Turns, Tomei became known as a cast member of the sequel to The Cosby Show, A Different World, in 1987. After working on a couple of films, her career took off in 1992 with the comedy My Cousin Vinny, for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

Having acted in several films over the years, her most commercially successful films are What Women Want (2000), Anger Management (2003) and Wild Hogs (2007). He received critical acclaim for his performances in Unhook the Stars (1996), Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) and was nominated for an Oscar for In the Bedroom (2001) and The Wrestler (2008).

Early Years

Tomei was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Patricia Adelaide "Addie" Tomei—née Bianchi—an English teacher, and Gary A. Tomei, a lawyer. She has a younger brother, actor Adam Tomei, and was raised for a time by her paternal grandparents. She has ancestry Italian on both sides; her father's ancestors came from Tuscany, Calabria, and Campania, and her mother's ancestors came from Tuscany and Sicily.

Growing up in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn, it was there that she became captivated by the Broadway shows that her theater-going parents took her to, and she became interested in acting as a profession. At Andries Hudde Junior High School, she played Hedy LaRue in a school production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying . After graduating from Edward R. Murrow High School in 1982, she attended Boston University for one year. She dropped out of college after landing a role on the soap opera As the World Turns.

Career

Tomei made his film debut in 1984 with a very small role in The Flamingo Kid. Three years later she became a well-known actress with a new television production. However, the movie that launched her to fame was My Cousin Vinny, from 1992, in which she starred alongside Joe Pesci. For this film Tomei received the controversial Oscar for best supporting actress. In that same year, she also took part in the film Chaplin, by Richard Attenborough.

After these two films, Tomei received offers for leading roles in several films, one of them the film Only You, with Robert Downey Jr. In 2001, she was nominated for the second time for an Oscar for the Best Supporting Actress for In the Bedroom and again in 2008 for The Fighter.

In 2015, Tomei was confirmed as the new Aunt May for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Filmography

Cinema

Television

Awards and nominations

Oscar Awards

Golden Globe Awards

BAFTA Awards

Awards of the Union of Actors