Drea de Matteo Biography

Drea de Matteo (born January 19, 1972) is an American television actress, known for her roles as Angie Bolen on ABC's Desperate Housewives, Joey Tribbiani's sister Gina on the NBC sitcom Joey, and as Adriana La Cerva on the acclaimed HBO TV series The Sopranos, a role for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

Personal life

De Matteo, an Italian American, was born Andrea Donna de Matteo in Queens, New York. Her mother, Donna, is a playwright and playwriting teacher, and her father, Albert A. De Matteo, was a furniture manufacturer who was owner and CEO of Avery Boardman and Carlyle. She grew up in a Roman Catholic family. She lives in New York City, where she owned Filth Mart, an East Village clothing store, with best friend and ex-boyfriend Michael Sportes. She was engaged to Shooter Jennings, the son of country music singer Waylon Jennings. The couple had their first child together, a girl named Alabama Gypsy Rose, on November 28, 2007. Jennings proposed onstage at the Stanley Center during a show in Utica, New York, on June 11, 2009, and confirmed the news on Twitter. "Asked Drea to marry me on stage tonight. I'm a lucky man," he Tweeted, "I'll never forget Utica, NY." On December 8, 2010, de Matteo's second pregnancy was announced. Their son, Waylon Albert "Blackjack" Jennings was born in April 2011. The couple split in 2013.

She is good friends with Desperate Housewives co-star John Barrowman who played her ex-lover and eco-terrorist partner Patrick Logan. She told him that he was her long lost brother and joked that she'd love to be a surrogate for his children. Barrowman mentions her in his autobiography, saying:

"Drea was brilliant to work with. When we first met, we hit it off immediately. She said something smart-ass tinged with a few expletives, I replied with something equally funny and we were off."

Career

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. 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 Xmas for which she received some very positive reviews.

In 2004, de Matteo won an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress (Drama) for her role as Adriana on The Sopranos (season 5) and also nominated for a Golden Globe the same year for the same role. She was ranked #42 and #56 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women of 2001 and 2002, respectively.

From 2004 to 2006, de Matteo portrayed Joey Tribbiani's sister Gina in the Friends spin-off Joey. The show was cancelled after two seasons.

De Matteo plays the role of Wendy Case in the FX original series Sons of Anarchy. The pilot episode aired September 3, 2008.

De Matteo played Angie Bolen, the mother of the Bolen family, on season 6 of the ABC 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, who is the main character of the FOX comedy, Running Wilde. She appeared in the 9th episode of Season 1 of the show.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	'M' Word	unknown
1999	Meet Prince Charming	Hilary Harris
2000	Sleepwalk	Henrieta
2001	Made	Club Girl	uncredited
	Swordfish	Melissa
	'R Xmas	The Wife	New York International Independent Film and Video Festival Award for Best Actress
2002	Deuces Wild	Betsy
	The Perfect You	Dee	as Drea DeMatteo
2003	Prey for Rock & Roll	Tracey
	Beacon Hill	Cadet Ramsey
2004	Love Rome	Angela
2005	Callas e Onassis	unknown	as Andrea de Matteo
	Assault on Precinct 13	Iris Ferry
2006	Walker Payne	Lou Ann
	Farce of the Penguins	Ester	Voice
2007	The Good Life	Dana	as Drea De Matteo
	Broken English	Audrey Andrews
2008	Lake City	Hope
2009	New York, I Love You	Lyndia
	Once More with Feeling	Lana Gregorio
2014	Dark Places	Krissi Cates

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Swift Justice	Laurie Tuco	Episode: Stones
1999"2006	The Sopranos	Adriana La Cerva	Episodes: 56 (January 10, 1999 " May 21, 2006) Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (2004) Gracie Allen Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (2004) Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress " Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2004) Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series (2004) Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2000-2004)
2002	VH1 Big in 2002 Awards	Host	TV
2004	The Ellen DeGeneres Show	Herself	Episode: October 24, 2004
	Hollywood Trash & Tinsel
	The Tonight Show with Jay Leno		Episode: September 21, 2004
	The 56th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards		V;Winner: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
	Rocked with Gina Gershon		Episode: April 14, 2004
2004"2006	Joey	Gina Tribbiani	Joey's Sister: Episodes:46 (September 9, 2004 " March 7, 2006)
2005	The CMT Music Awards	Herself
	The Tony Danza Show		Episode: February 10, 2005
	The View		Episode: February 23, 2005
	Last Call with Carson Daly		Episode: March 21, 2005
	Live with Regis and Kelly		Episode: January 27, 2005
	Jimmy Kimmel Live!		Episode: January 19, 2005
	The 62nd Annual Golden Globe Awards		TV;Nominee: Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series, Mini-Series or Made for TV Movie
	HBO First Look		Assault on Precinct 13: Caught in the Crosshairs
	The 31st Annual People's Choice Awards		Winner
2007	Aperture	Herself
	The 50 Greatest Television Dramas
	Al rojo vivo con María Celeste		Episode: May 28, 2007
	Making 'Cleaver'	Adriana La Cerva	Television film
2008-2013	Sons of Anarchy	Wendy Case	Season 1 Episodes: 6 (September 3 " November 19, 2008) - Season 4 Episodes: 2 (November 15"22, 2011) - Seasons 5-6 (2012-13)
2009"2010	Desperate Housewives	Angie Bolen	Starring Role (Season 6)
2010	Fakers	Tanner's mother	Television film
2011	CSI:Miami	Evelyn	Season: 10, Episode: 7 "Sinner Takes All"
	Law and Order: Special Victims Unit	Sandra Roberts	Season: 12, Episode: 259 "Pop"
2012	Californication	Holly (Stripper)	Season: 5, Episode: 7 "Here I Go Again"
2013	The Mindy Project	Kelsey (Pregnant Woman)	Season: 1, Episode: 15 "Mindy's Minute"