Background:

“Not to sound like a whore, but I've been with...I've worked with...some very attractive men. Nicolas Cage...Al Pacino...Ben Stiller...and Woody Allen.” Tea Leoni

American actress Tea Leoni is known for starring in such films as “Bad Boys” (1995), “Flirting with Disaster” (1996), “Deep Impact” (1998), where she was nominated for a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for her performance, “The Family Man” (2000), from which she picked up a Saturn Award and a Blockbuster Entertainment nomination, “Jurassic Park III” (2001), “People I Know” (2002), “Hollywood Ending” (2002), “Spanglish” (2004), “Fun with Dick and Jane” (2005), “You Kill Me” (2007), “Ghost Town” (2008), “The Smell of Success” (2009) and “Tower Heist”  (2011). She has starred in the television sitcoms “Flying Blind” (Fox, 1992-1993) and “The Naked Truth” (ABC, 1995-1996; NBC, 1996-1998). In 2006, she was nominated for a TV Land Award in the category of Little Screen/Big Screen Star (Women).   

Leoni and her husband David Duchovny have been separated. They have two children together. She was previously married to Neil Joseph Tardio Jr. (together from 1991 to 1995). She was once  romantically linked to “The Naked Truth” creator Chris Thompson. Leoni is a vegan and a yoga enthusiast.


Elizabeth Téa Pantaleoni

Childhood and Family:

Tea Leoni was born Elizabeth Téa Pantaleoni on February 25, 1966 in New York City, New York, to Emily Ann (née Patterson), a nutritionist and .Anthony Pantaleoni, a lawyer. His father is of Italian and Polish extraction, while her Southern-born mother is of Anglo-Saxon ancestry. Her paternal grandfather was silent film and stage actress Helenka Adamowska. She has one brother named Thomas 'Tom' Pantaleoni. Raised in Manhattan, Tea was educated at the Brearley School as a young girl and continued to attend the Putney School, a boarding school in Putney, Vermont. After graduating in 1984, she headed to Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY to study psychology and anthropology.  However, she later dropped out and traveled for several months, during which time she  lived in Italy, Tokyo and St. Croix and supported herself by working as a crew hand on a sailboat. She began acting upon her return to New York.

On June 8, 1991, Tea was married to Neil Joseph Tardio Jr., a television commercial producer, at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Hope, New Jersey. They divorced on October 1, 1995. Tea next married “The X-Files” star David Duchovny on May 6, 1997, following a nine week courtship. The couple welcomed their first child, daughter Madelaine West Duchovny, on  April 24, 1999. Their second child, son Kyd Miller Duchovny, was born in June 2002. On October 15, 2008, Tea and her husband announced that they had been separated for several months. The two have since publicly reconciled and are seen often together as a family. They once again split on June 29, 2011.


Deep Impact

Career:

Tea Leoni landed a part on Aaron Spelling's “Angels 88” (1988), an updated version of the popular 1970s series “Charlie's Angels,” in her very first audition. The show, however, never broadcast after a writer's strike put it on hold. Undaunted with the experience, she decided to continue to pursue acting, and quickly got the role of Lisa DiNapoli on the NBC daytime soap opera “Santa Barbara” (1989). Two years later, she made her film debut ax Connie the Dream Girl in “Switch” (1991), a comedy written and directed by Blake Edwards and starring Ellen Barkin. The film was not a success on box office. She followed it up with a small role in the women's baseball film “A League of Their Own” (1992), starring Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Tom Hanks, Madonna, and Rosie O'Donnell. Unlike her first film, the Penny Marshal directed was a commercial success by grossing over $132 million worldwide, against a budget of $40 million, and was well received by critics.

Leoni returned to the small screen when she landed the lead role of beautiful libertine Alicia on the half hour situation comedy “Flying Blind,” opposite Corey Parker. The series premiered on Fox on September 13, 1992 and ran for a single season through May 2, 1993.  

In 1994, Leoni portrayed Sally in “Wyatt Earp,” a semi biographical Western film written by Dan Gordon and Lawrence Kasdan and directed by Kasdan. The film was not a box office success, though it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography in 1995. It was also nominated for five Razzie Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screen Couple,  Worst Remake or Sequel (won) and Worst Actor (won). The same year, she also starred as Gina Leonarda Nardino on the Fox made for television film “The Counterfeit Contessa,” opposite D.W. Moffett and David Beecroft. Leoni's breakthrough film role arrived in the following year when she landed her first starring role as Julie Mott on the Michael Bay action flick “Bad Boys,” opposite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Despite mixed critical reception, the film was financially successful by   grossing over $65.8 million in North America and over $75 million elsewhere for a total of over $141 million worldwide. The year also saw the actress appear as Sheila, the fiance of Sam Malone in an episode of “Frasier” called “The Show Where Sam Shows Up.”  

It was also in 1995 that Leoni was cast in the leading role of Nora Wilde, a tabloid news journalist, on the television sitcom “The Naked Truth,” opposite Holland Taylor. Debuted on ABC on September 13, 1995, the show was canceled by the network after a single season despite having  significant high ratings, with the final episode aired on February 28, 1996. The series then moved to NBC, where it lasted for two additional seasons until May 1998.

While working on on the series, Leoni starred alongside Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Mary Tyler Moore, George Segal, Alan Alda and Lily Tomlin in the David O. Russell comedy film “Flirting with Disaster” (1996), about a young father's hunt for his biological parents. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. Two years later, she played MSNBC reporter Jenny Lerner on the disaster film “Deep Impact,” opposite Robert Duvall, Elijah Wood, Vanessa Redgrave, Maximillian Schell, James Cromwell and Morgan Freeman, . Helmed by Mimi Leder, the film grossed over $349 million worldwide on a $75 million production budget, making it a major commercial success. Leoni was nominated for a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress - Sci-Fi for her performance in the film. Later that same year, she co-starred with Fairuza Balk and Noah Taylor in the comedy film “There's No Fish Food in Heaven,” which was directed and written by Eleanor Gaver.

After taking sometime off for maternity reasons in the late 1990s, Leoni returned to work in 2000 when she starred along with Nicolas Cage in the drama film “The Family Man,” directed by Brett Ratner. Playing Cage's beloved, Kate Reynolds, she won a Saturn for Best Actress and was nominated for a Blockbuster Entertainment Award in the category of Favorite Actress – Comedy/Romance. “The Family Man” grossed over $124.7 million worldwide against a production budget of $60 million. The same year, she also made a guest appearance as an actress portraying Dana Scully in a movie under her own name in an episode of her husband's series, “The X-Files,” called “Hollywood A.D.” In 2001, she played the role of Amanda, the former wife of wealthy businessman Paul Kirby (portrayed by William H. Macy), on “Jurassic Park III,” the third film in the “Jurassic Park” franchise that is neither directed by Steven Spielberg and nor based on a book by Michael Crichton. Although receiving mixed reviews    from critics, the film was a financial success. In the following year, she teamed up with Al Pacino and Kim Basinger on the ensemble crime/drama movie “People I Know,” helmed by Daniel Algrant, and played Woody Allen's ex wife on Allen's failed film, “Hollywood Ending.”

Back to the screen after giving birth to her second child in 2002, Leoni appeared with husband David Duchovny in Duchovny's directorial debut, “House of D,” which was screened at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. Released in theaters in 2005, the film received generally poor reviews and was a little success at the box office. The same year, she was cast the stressed out, neurotic wife of Adam Sandler on James L. Brooks' “Spanglish,” which was a box office disappointment. Next up for Leoni, she starred with Jim Carrey in the successful comedy “Fun with Dick and Jane” (2005), a remake of  the 1977  film of the same name, was featured along with Ben Kingsley in the mafia comedy/thriller movie “You Kill Me” (2007), which she also executive produced, and appeared with Ricky Gervais  and Greg Kinnear in the David Koepp comedy/drama “Ghost Town” (2008). She was cast opposite Billy Bob Thornton in the Larry Smith directed film “The Smell of Success,”  which was screened at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. The film was released on theaters on August 19, 2011.

Leoni re-teamed with Ben Stiller in the ensemble comedy “Tower Heist,” which was directed by Brett Ratner and written by Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson, based on a story by Bill Collage, Adam Cooper, and Griffin. It was released on November 2, 2011 in the United Kingdom, with a United States release following two days later. As of February 2012, “Tower Heist” has grossed over  $146.5 million  worldwide, 53.3% of which from the US market. Also in 2011, Leoni executive produced and appeared in the television film “Spring/Fall,” whose cast also included Sigourney Weaver, Hope Davis, Lucy Walters, Marin Hinkle and Jessica Hecht.                 

Awards:

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films: Saturn Award, Best Actress, “The Family Man,” 2001 Show Less