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, with Robert Downey Jr., and her first romantic lead 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 was 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 continues to work steadily and although she is not one of Hollywood’s most famous actresses, Tomei is now 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. She then had an on-again-off-again relationship with a New York playwright, Frank Pugliese, for years. In 1999, Tomei reportedly began her relationship with Ashbrook again and the two still seem to be together.

Marisa Tomei has three movies slated for release in 2007: Wild Hogs, with Tim Allen; Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, and Albert Finney; and The Night Job, with Roy Liotta and Mickey Rourke.

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