Drea de Matteo is an American actress, known for her roles as Angie Bolen on American Broadcasting Company"s Desperate Housewives, Joey Tribbiani"s sister Gina on the National Broadcasting Company sitcom Joey, and Adriana Louisiana Cerva on the Home Box Office television series The Sopranos, a role for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
Background
De Matteo, an Italian American, was born Andrea Donna de Matteo in Whitestone, Queens, New New York Her mother, Donna, is a playwright and playwriting teacher, and her father, Albert A. De Matteo, is a furniture manufacturer who was owner and Chief Executive Officer of Avery Boardman and Carlyle. She grew up in a Roman Catholic family.
Education
After graduating from the Loyola School, she studied at New York University"s Tisch School of the Arts, originally hoping to become a director, not an actress.
Career
Most recently, de Matteo starred as Wendy Case in the Forex series Sons of Anarchy. She currently stars as Detroit Tess Nazario in National Broadcasting Company"s Shades of Blue.
De Matteo"s role in The Sopranos was one of her earliest, helping to launch her career.
She has appeared in several films including Swordfish, Deuces Wild, The Perfect You, Prey for Rock & Roll and the 2005 remake of John Carpenter"s 1976 action film Assault on Precinct 13. She had the starring role in Abel Ferrara"s R Christmas for which she received some very positive reviews.
She was ranked #42 and #56 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women of 2001 and 2002, respectively. The show was cancelled after two seasons.
De Matteo played the role of Wendy Case in the Forex original series Sons of Anarchy.
The pilot episode aired September 3, 2008, and De Matteo continued making regular appearances into the series" sixth season. She was promoted to a series regular for the seventh and final season. De Matteo played Angie Bolen, the mother of the Bolen family, on season 6 of the American Broadcasting Company show Desperate Housewives.
She officially left Desperate Housewives at the season 6 finale in 2010, due to personal reasons.
De Matteo played the stepmother of Steve Wilde, the main character of the FOX comedy Running Wilde, appearing in Season 1, Episode 9. De Matteo co-starred as Krissi Cates in the film adaptation of Dark Places (2015), with Charlize Theron, Chloƫ Grace Moretz, and Nicholas Hoult.
In 2015, she was cast as Detroit Tess Nazario in the National Broadcasting Company drama series Shades of Blue, starring alongside Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta.
lieutenant premiered on January 7, 2016.