Téa Leoni
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| Téa Leoni | |
| Birth name | Elizabeth Téa Pantaleoni |
| Born | February 25, 1966 (age 41) New York City, New York, United States |
| Years active | 1989 - present |
| Spouse(s) | David Duchovny (1997 - present) |
| Notable roles | Nora Wilde in The Naked Truth Jenny Lerner in Deep Impact Deborah Clasky in Spanglish Amanda Kirby in Jurassic Park III |
Téa Leoni (born Elizabeth Téa Pantaleoni on February 25, 1966 in New York City) is an American actress. Her name is pronounced /teːˈɑ lɛˈoːniː/, although some Americans say /tiːˈə lioːˈniː/
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Personal life
Leoni was born in New York City to Anthony Pantaleoni, a corporate lawyer, and Emily Patterson, a dietician. Leoni's paternal grandfather, Guido Pantaleoni, had an Italian father and an American mother; her paternal grandmother, Helenka Tradusa Adamowska, was a film and stage actress who was born in the U.S. to Polish parents. Leoni states in the October 27, 2006 Life magazine that she became a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF partially because her grandmother Helenka was the president of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF for 25 years. Leoni's mother was born in Texas, as were her maternal grandparents, Virgil Pearson Patterson and Florry Roberts.[1] Leoni married actor David Duchovny on May 6, 1997. Their first child, daughter Madelaine West Duchovny, was born on April 24, 1999, and their second, son Kyd Miller Duchovny, was born on June 15, 2002.
[edit] Career
A graduate of Brearley School, The Putney School and Sarah Lawrence College (Anthropology, Psychology), Leoni went on to star in a number of TV series and movies, starting as "Lisa DiNapoli" on Santa Barbara in 1989. She starred in the 1995 box-office hit Bad Boys, along with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Her most commercially successful movie was Deep Impact, in which her character, "Jenny Lerner," breaks the story of a comet that is going to hit Earth. She also starred in Woody Allen's movie Hollywood Ending, with Allen and Mark Rydell. In 2004, she starred in Spanglish with Adam Sandler, Cloris Leachman, and Paz Vega (a Spanish actress with whom she spoke Italian off-set).
In 1993, she landed the starring role in Fox's Flying Blind, a short-lived sitcom.
In 1995, Leoni landed the lead role in the television sitcom The Naked Truth, playing Nora Wilde, a tabloid news journalist. The show was a minor hit and lasted until 1998.
She was ranked #79 on the FHM 100 Sexiest Women of 2000.[2]
An asteroid, 8299 Téaleoni, has been named after her. While on The Tonight Show starring Jay Leno, Leoni admitted that she had incorrectly filled out her 2000 general election absentee ballot. She had intended to vote for Al Gore, but instead accidentally voted for someone named "Howard" (most likely Howard Phillips, the very paleoconservative candidate of the Constitution Party).
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Movie | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Fun with Dick and Jane | Jane Harper |
| House of D | Mrs. Warshaw | |
| 2004 | Spanglish | Deborah Clasky |
| 2002 | People I Know | Jili Hopper |
| Hollywood Ending | Ellie | |
| 2001 | Jurassic Park III | Amanda Kirby |
| 2000 | The Family Man | Kate Reynolds |
| 1998 | Deep Impact | Jenny Lerner |
| 1996 | Flirting with Disaster | Tina Cable |
| 1995 | Bad Boys | Julie Mott |
| 1994 | Wyatt Earp | Sally |
| Counterfeit Contessa (TV) | Gina Leonarda Nardino | |
| 1992 | A League of Their Own | Racine (1st base) |
| 1991 | Switch | Connie (dream girl) |
[edit] References
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Ancestry info culled together from [1], Leoni's family tree at [2], and the 1900 U.S. census, which indicates that Leoni's paternal great-grandmother was of American parentage
- ^ FreeJose.com. FHM 100 Sexiest Women of 2000. Retrieved on January 28, 2007.
[edit] Web sites
- Téa Leoni at the Internet Movie Database
- Téa Leoni at [3]
