Movies

Marisa Tomei (/toʊˈmeɪ/ toh-MAY, Italian: ; born December 4, 1964) is an American actress. She was a cast member on the Cosby Show spin-off A Different World in 1987. For her role in the 1992 comedy My Cousin Vinny, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has received two additional Oscar nominations for In the Bedroom (2001) and The Wrestler (2008), with the latter also earning her nominations at the BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards.

Tomei has appeared in a number of notable films, including Chaplin (1992), The Paper (1994), What Women Want (2000), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), The Ides of March (2011), Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), Parental Guidance (2012), Love Is Strange (2014), and The Big Short (2015). She also portrayed May Parker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), having appeared in Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).

Tomei was formerly involved with the Naked Angels Theater Company and appeared in Daughters (1986) before making her Broadway debut in Wait Until Dark (1998). She earned a nomination for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for her role in Top Girls (2008), and a special Drama Desk Award for The Realistic Joneses (2014). She returned to Broadway in the revival of The Rose Tattoo in 2019.

Early life
Tomei was born on December 4, 1964, in Brooklyn, New York, to Adelaide "Addie" (née Bianchi), an English teacher, and Gary A. Tomei, a trial lawyer. She has a younger brother, actor Adam Tomei, and was partly raised by her paternal grandparents. Tomei's parents are both of Italian descent; her father's ancestors came from Tuscany, Calabria, and Campania, while her mother's ancestors are from Tuscany and Sicily. She graduated from Edward R. Murrow High School in 1982.

Tomei grew up in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn. While there, she became captivated by the Broadway shows to which her theater-loving parents took her and was drawn to acting as a career. At Andries Hudde Junior High School, she played Hedy LaRue in a school production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. She also attended Albee School Of Dance. After graduating from high school, she attended Boston University for a year.