Lorraine Bracco

Lorraine Bracco is an American actress best known for her roles as psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi on the HBO crime drama series The Sopranos and as Karen Hill in the Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas. Her career spans work across television and film, beginning with fashion modeling in France before moving into European and American screen roles.

Bracco was born on October 2, 1954, in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. She is the daughter of Eileen and Salvatore S. Bracco Sr. Her father was of Italian descent, while her English-born mother had French ancestry. Bracco grew up in Hicksville, New York, alongside her sister Elizabeth and brother Salvatore Jr., graduating from Hicksville High School in 1972.

In 1974, Bracco moved to France and worked as a fashion model for Jean-Paul Gaultier for about a decade. During this period, she made her film debut in Marc Camoletti's Duos sur canapé in 1979. To develop her craft, she took acting lessons with John Strasberg and worked as a disc jockey for Radio Luxembourg during the 1980s. After receiving a small role from Italian director Lina Wertmüller in the film Camorra, Bracco was inspired to pursue acting as a full career.

Bracco made her English-language film debut in 1987 in The Pick-up Artist, followed by roles in Someone to Watch Over Me, Sing, and The Dream Team. She achieved a major career breakthrough in 1990 when she portrayed mobster wife Karen Hill in Goodfellas. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, she appeared in feature films such as Switch, Medicine Man, Radio Flyer, Hackers, The Basketball Diaries, and Riding in Cars with Boys.

When auditioning for The Sopranos, creator David Chase initially envisioned Bracco in the lead role of Carmela Soprano. Interested in a new artistic challenge, Bracco convinced Chase to let her play Dr. Jennifer Melfi, a role she portrayed from 1999 to 2007. Her work in Goodfellas and The Sopranos earned her nominations for an Academy Award, four Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and three Actor Awards, alongside wins from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and Chicago Film Critics Association.

From 2010 to 2016, Bracco co-starred as Angela Rizzoli in all 105 episodes of the TNT series Rizzoli & Isles. She later held recurring roles on the comedy series Dice and the police drama Blue Bloods. In 2020, she starred in the HGTV documentary series My Big Italian Adventure, documenting her renovation of a historic home in Sambuca di Sicilia. Her recent projects include voicing Sofia the Seagull in the 2022 film Pinocchio and starring in the 2023 drama Jacir.

Beyond her acting career, Bracco owns Bracco Wines in association with Straight-Up Brands LLC and appeared as a guest judge on Top Chef. She authored the 2015 self-help book To the Fullest and practices Shotokan Karate. She was married to Daniel Guerard from 1979 to 1982, was in a 12-year relationship with actor Harvey Keitel, and was married to actor Edward James Olmos from 1994 to 2002. She has two daughters, Margaux and Stella.