Marisa Tomei, born on December 4, 1964, in Brooklyn, New York, is an award-winning American actress best known for her Oscar-winning role in My Cousin Vinny (1992). With a versatile career spanning film and theater, she has starred in notable films like The Wrestler and What Women Want, while also advocating for social causes such as voting rights.

She grew up in a vibrant Italian-American household, with her father Gary Tomei practicing law and her mother Patricia "Addie" Bianchi teaching English.

Marisa Tomei has a younger brother, actor Adam Tomei, and was partly raised by her paternal grandparents. She attended Edward R. Murrow High School and briefly Boston University before dropping out to pursue acting. Her early television roles included appearances on the soap opera As the World Turns and the sitcom A Different World.

Her film debut came in The Flamingo Kid (1984), but it was her breakout role as Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny that truly launched her career. She has since appeared in a wide range of films, including The Paper (1994), What Women Want (2000), The Wrestler (2008), and as May Parker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe from Captain America: Civil War (2016) to Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).

Marisa Tomei has also been involved in theater, making her Broadway debut in Wait Until Dark (1998) and earning nominations for her performances in Top Girls (2008) and The Realistic Joneses (2014).

Her contributions to the arts have been recognized with several awards, including two Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress for In the Bedroom (2001) and The Wrestler (2008).