12:00PM, Jan 23, 2009
Born: 4 December 1964,
Where: Brooklyn, New York
Tomei's breakthrough performance was opposite Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny for which she received a best supporting actress Oscar.
She has since gone on to impress in movies ranging from the drama Welcome To Sarajevo to an Oscar-nominated turn as a stripper in The Wrestler.
The daughter of an English teacher and a lawyer, her mother frequently corrected her speech in a bid to eradicate her strong Brooklyn accent.
She appeared on screen for the first time aged 19 as Marcy Thompson on the daytime TV drama As the World Turns.
In 1987, Tomei landed the title role in Supermom's Daughter, a TV special and from 1987-1988 she played Lisa Bonet's flatmate during the first season of the classic TV sitcom A Different World.
Her most prominent role was in My Cousin Vinny, for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
Further successful movie appearances followed for Marisa, such as The Watcher - with Keanu Reeves and James Spader; What Women Want - with Mel Gibson; Someone Like You - opposite Ashley Judd, and the digitally-shot Chelsea Walls - directed by Ethan Hawke.
The tense drama In The Bedroom brought her to the forefront of her profession and eased her into an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
In 2002, she starred in The Guru with Heather Graham and alongside Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson in Anger Management.
Subsequent roles have included on of Jude Law's female conquests in the remake of the Michael Caine classic Alfie and the Charles Bukowski biopic Factotum.
Inj 2007, she appeared in the disposable comedy Wild Hogs with John Travolta but impressed in the superlative Sidney Lumet thriller Before The Devil Knows Your Dead.
She received her third Oscar nomination for her role as a stripper in Mickey Rourke's comeback triumph The Wrestler in 2009.
