Tomei, an Italian American, was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Patricia "Addie," an English teacher, and Gary A. Tomei, a trial lawyer. She has a younger brother, Adam, and was partly raised by her paternal grandparents, Rita and Romeo Tomei. Tomei grew up in Midwood. While there she became captivated by the Broadway shows that her theater-loving parents took her to and became drawn Read more...

Tomei followed up As the World Turns, in 1987, with a role on the sitcom A Different World. Her breakthrough performance came in My Cousin Vinny (1992), for which she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. After her Oscar win, she received a Screen Actor's Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Female Supporting Actor for Unhook the Stars. Next, she received an American Comedy Award nomination Read more...

In the early 1990s, Tomei dated Robert Downey, Jr. (her co-star in Chaplin and Only You). In 1999, she dated actor Dana Ashbrook and had a relationship with Frankie Pugliese. She tends to keep her personal life away from the media. Even though Tomei dropped out of college, she received an honorary degree from Boston University.