TEA LEONI

Profile

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Famous as :

Actress

Birth Name :

Elizabeth Tea Pantaleoni

Birth Date :

February 25, 1966

Birth Place :

New York, New York, USA

Spouse :

Neil Tardio (TV commercials director, 08-Jun-92 - October 1995), David Duchovny (actor, since 6-May-97)

Claim to fame :

As Nora Wilde in TV series "The Naked Truth" (1995-1998)

Biography 

A beautiful thespian of Polish, Italian, and English ancestry with remarkable acting talent, which is clearly visible to the eye of audience, Tea Leoni certainly has become a notable figure to look at, particularly when she jumps to the comedy genre. Born as Elizabeth Tea Pantaleoni into a proper family of corporate lawyer and professional nutritionist on February 25, 1966, in New York, Tea originally had developed a fondness for acting at her early age, largely due to the influence of her paternal grandmother, Helenka Adamowska, who used to be a silent film actress. However, the girl wisely preferred to concentrate on her study instead, attending Brearley High which located on Upper East Side of the city, then Putney High School in Vermont before entering Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers to take majors in Anthropology and Psychology. It was not until this daughter of Anthony and Emily Pantaleoni returned from her journey around Italy, Japan, also the Isle of St. Croix during her college break that she really began to develop a career in acting.

Taking her friend's challenge to enter a local casting call in Boston for a newly-conceived TV series entitled "Angels '88", Tea surprisingly was given a major part despite her little knowledge and experience in performing characters. Realized this flaw, she thus started to polish her acting skills in Los Angeles while waiting for the realization of the "Charlie's Angels" spin-off which, much to her dismal, was never brought to the surface because of a writer's strike in Hollywood. Fortunately, this blue-eyed beauty then managed to earn a temporary replacement role of Lisa DiNapoli in NBC's soap opera "Santa Barbara" (1984-1993) in 1989, followed by her big screen debut through Blake Edwards' comedy flick entitled "Switch" (1991). Also took part in other projects of the same genre, such as "A League of Their Own" (1992), "Flying Blind" (1992), and "The Counterfeit Contessa" (1994), she satisfyingly gained more public attention when joined Will Smith along with Martin Lawrence in Michael Bay's smash box-office hit, "Bad Boys" (1995).