Marisa Tomei was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 4, 1964. Her mother, Dana, was an English teacher, and her father, Gary, was a lawyer. Tomei grew up in Brooklyn and found her love of acting while watching many Broadway shows as a child. She dropped out of college after one year when she earned a role on the soap opera As the World Turns.

In 1987 Tomei was given the role of Maggie Lawton in the Bill Cosby produced television show A Different World. The show, which centered on a fictional black college, had Marisa Tomei playing the white roommate of Lisa Bonet. After one year, her character was dropped from the show.

Tomei turned her attention to film and had small roles in Sylvester Stallone’s Oscar in 1991, and Zandalee also in 1991, with Nicolas Cage. Her breakout role came in 1992 with the movie My Cousin Vinny. She followed her Oscar winning role with parts in Chaplin in 1992, which saw her starring alongside Robert Downey Jr., followed by her first romantic lead role opposite Christian Slater in Untamed Heart in 1993. The following year Tomei worked with Robert Downey Jr. again in the romance Only You.

However, none of the films following her Oscar win gained her critical acclaim, and people began talking about the "Oscar Curse" and saying that her win for My Cousin Vinney had been a fluke. Rumors even circulated that presenter Jack Palance had named her the winner when actually someone else’s name was on the card. The rumor has been discredited.

Tomei continued to work steadily through the 1990s. In 2001 she broke the "Oscar Curse" and wowed critics again with her performance in In the Bedroom. She was again nominated for an Academy Award. Tomei continued to work steadily and although she may not have caught the eye of Hollywood producers and film makers as a top Hollywood actress, Tomei did become one of Hollywood’s most respected.

Romantically, Marisa Tomei has not followed the typical Hollywood path of dating one star after another. She was romantically linked with actor Dana Ashbrook in the early 1990s, also at that time Tomei dated Robert Downey, Jr. her co-star in Chaplin and Only You.

Marisa then had an on-again-off-again relationship with a New York playwright, Frank Pugliese, for years. She later returned to Dana Ashbrook in 1999 but the relationship eventually ended.

In 2007, Marisa appeared in the comedy Wild Hogs alongside John Travolta, Tim Allen, William H Macy and Martin Lawrence. In the same year she also starred in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke. Tomei's role in this movie saw her in nude love scenes with her two co stars which gained much attention.

By 2009 Marisa was dating actor Logan Marshall Green. It was that year that also saw Marisa making her first celebrated big screen appearance when she played opposite another cursed actor, Mickey Rourke, in The Wrestler. Making his come back to the Hollywood scene his performance opposite Marisa was expected to gain Rourke an Oscar, but the honour eluded him. For Tomei it was yet another role that demanded stripper qualities as she played Pam, a pole dancer.

The Wrestler was a blockbuster success and Marisa was nominated for a BAFTA, Golden Globe and Academy Award for this performance. Critics heralded this performance as a standout in her career.

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