Lorraine Bracco

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Lorraine Bracco
Lorraine Bracco as Dr. Melfi in The Sopranos
Born	October 2, 1955 Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York, USA

Lorraine Bracco (born October 2, 1955^[1]^[2]) is an Academy Award-nominated American actress who is best known for her role as Dr. Jennifer Melfi on the HBO TV series, The Sopranos.

She has also appeared in a number of other films, including Goodfellas (which netted her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress), Riding in Cars with Boys, The Basketball Diaries, Medicine Man, Radio Flyer and Hackers.

Bracco was born in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bay Ridge and grew up in Hicksville on Long Island. She was voted the "ugliest girl in the 6th grade" at her Long Island grade school. She moved to France in 1974 where she became a fashion model for Jean-Paul Gaultier.

She is of Italian and English ancestry, speaks fluent French, and was previously married to Harvey Keitel, and later Edward James Olmos. Bracco engaged in a five-year legal battle that ended in 1999 for custody of her daughter Stella from the marriage with Keitel, the legal fees and taxes of which forced her to file for bankruptcy; later she and Olmos filed for divorce in March 2002. After another failed relationship, Bracco is dating Jason Cipolla and has long since recovered financially as well through the success of The Sopranos. She has been dealing with clinical depression and has been doing ads for Pfizer.

She is the owner of Bracco Wines, and a personal friend of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.^{[citation needed]} She and her line of wines were featured on the Season 1 finale of Bravo's show Top Chef in 2006. She appeared as a guest judge for the 2 episode finale.^[3]