Carla Gugino

Birthday: 29 August 1971, Sarasota, Florida, USA

Height: 5' 5" (1.65 m)

 

Biography

Carla was born in Sarasota, Florida. Moved with her mother to Paradise, California, when Carla was just five years old. During her childhood, they moved many times within the state. But she remained a straight-A student throughout high school and graduated as valedictorian. A major modeling agency discovered Carla in San Diego and sent her to New York to begin a new career when she was 15. New York was more than she could handle at that young age, so she returned to LA in the summer, modeling and enrolling in an acting class at the suggestion of her aunt, Carol Merrill, known from "Let's Make a Deal" (1963). During her free 

Gugino was born in Sarasota, Florida, to Carl Gugino, an orthodontist of Italian descent,^[1] and a mother of English-Irish descent^[2] described as "Bohemian".^[3] Her parents separated when she was two,^[4] after which she traveled between her father and half-brother Carl Jr.'s home in Sarasota, and her Paradise, California home, to which her mother moved her when she was four. She has described her bicoastal childhood, saying, "I lived in a tepee in Northern California and a van in Big Sur. With my dad, I lived in a beautiful house with a swimming pool and a tennis court and went to Europe for the summers. So I feel like I lived two childhoods." She worked as a teenage fashion model, and took acting classes at the suggestion of her aunt, former Let's Make a Deal spokesmodel Carol Merrill.^[3] She eventually came to support herself, and with her parents' support, was legally emancipated by the time she was 16

Gugino's television work during the late 1980s and early 1990s included appearances on Saved by the Bell, Who's the Boss?, ALF, Doogie Howser, M.D., The Wonder Years and a recurring role on Falcon Crest.

In film, Gugino appeared the Shelley Long film, Troop Beverly Hills and co-starred with Pauly Shore in the 1993 romantic comedy Son in Law. She later appeared in the video to Bon Jovi's 1994 song "Always".

After playing Michael J. Fox's love interest, Ashley Schaeffer, during the first season of the sitcom Spin City in 1996, Gugino starred with Nicolas Cage in Brian De Palma's Snake Eyes, and in Judas Kiss, which she also co-produced. She appeared as Dr. Gina Simon during the 1999–2000 final season of Chicago Hope.

Gugino Giving an Interview to CNN 2011

In 2001, she appeared as family matriarch Ingrid Cortez in the first Spy Kids film (as well as the film's two sequels in 2002 and 2003). That same year she appeared as Jet Li's love interest in the martial arts action thriller The One.

She starred in two short-lived TV series: ABC's Elmore Leonard crime drama Karen Sisco in 2003, and CBS's science fiction series Threshold in 2005. That same year, Gugino appeared as Lucille in the feature film adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel, Sin City. The following year, she appeared in the movie Night at the Museum.

Gugino appeared in the Roundabout Theatre Company play After the Fall opposite Six Feet Under's Peter Krause. In late 2006, she appeared in an Off-Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer opposite Blythe Danner.^[5]

Gugino appeared as Amanda, Vincent Chase's agent, in a dozen episodes of the cable television series Entourage.^[6] Gugino appeared nude in the May 2007 issue of Allure.^[7] That same year she appeared in the feature film American Gangster. The following year, she played the female lead in the thriller Righteous Kill, opposite Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.

Gugino starred in Chicago's Goodman Theater production of Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms from January 17 to February 17, 2009, in the role of Abby. Charles Isherwood of The New York Times praised Gugino's performance, saying, "Ms. Gugino displays a depth and range of expression that I cannot imagine any other actress achieving with such blazing honesty and wrenching truth. She is simply magnificent."^[8] During the first three months of 2009, three feature films premiered featuring Gugino: the thriller The Unborn, the film Watchmen, in which she played Sally Jupiter,^[9] and the adventure remake Race to Witch Mountain, in which she starred opposite Dwayne Johnson. That April, she received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination^[10] for Outstanding Actress In a Play for her performance in Desire Under the Elms. Later in November of that year, she appeared as a pornographic actress in the comedy film Women in Trouble, which spawned a sequel in 2010, Elektra Luxx, titled after her character.

In 2011, Gugino appeared as Madame Vera Gorsky in Zack Snyder's action-fantasy film Sucker Punch alongside Abbie Cornish and Emily Browning. Gugino sang a duet with co-star Oscar Isaac, which appeared in the end credits and in the film's soundtrack. She also played Henry "Hank" Moody's attorney and love-interest for the 4th season of Californication on Showtime.

In the summer of 2012 Gugino had a lead role as Susan Berg, a Washington D.C. investigative reporter, on the USA Network's miniseries Political Animals.

Personal life

Gugino is a life and film partner with American film director, screenwriter and film producer Josh Adams. They met as actors in the 1996 film Wedding Bell Blues, and she has appeared in ten other films and television series that he has written or directed since then.

 

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1989	Troop Beverly Hills	Chica Barnfell
1990	Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael	Young Roxy
1993	This Boy's Life	Norma Hansen
	Red Hot	Valentina
	Son in Law	Rebecca ' Becca' Warner
1995	Miami Rhapsody	Leslie Marcus
1996	Jaded	Megan 'Meg' Harris
	Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco	Delilah	Voice Role
	The War at Home	Melissa
	Wedding Bell Blues	Violet
	Michael	Bride
1997	Lovelife	Amy
1998	Snake Eyes	Julia Costello
	Judas Kiss	Coco Chavez
2001	Spy Kids	Ingrid Cortez
	The Center of the World	Jerri
	The Jimmy Show	Annie
	The One	T. K. Law/Massie Walsh
2002	Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams	Ingrid Cortez
2003	The Singing Detective	Betty Dark/Hooker
	Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over	Ingrid Cortez
2005	The Life Coach	Carla
	Sin City	Lucille
2006	Even Money	Veronica
	Night at the Museum	Rebecca Hutman
2007	The Lookout	Janet
	Rise: Blood Hunter	Eve
	American Gangster	Laurie Roberts
2008	Righteous Kill	Det. Karen Corelli
2009	The Unborn	Janet Beldon
	Sparks	Robin	Short film
	Watchmen	Sally Jupiter/Silk Spectre
	Race to Witch Mountain	Dr. Alex Friedman
	Women in Trouble	Elektra Luxx
	Under the Hood	Sally Jupiter/Silk Spectre	Direct-to-Video Release
2010	The Mighty Macs	Cathy Rush
	Elektra Luxx	Elektra Luxx
	Every Day	Robin
	Faster	Cicero
2011	I Melt With You	Laura
	Girl Walks Into a Bar	Francine Driver
	Sucker Punch	Dr. Vera Gorski
	Mr. Popper's Penguins	Amanda
	New Year's Eve	Dr. Morriset
2012	Hotel Noir	Hanna Click
2013	By Virtue Fall	Actress
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988	Who's the Boss?	Jane	Episode: "Prom Night II"
	Good Morning, Miss Bliss	Karen	Episode: "Summer Love"
1989	ALF	Laura	Episode: "Standing in the Shadows of Love"
	Saved by the Bell	Karen	Episode: 1.1 Pilot
1989 – 1990	Falcon Crest	Sydney St. James	11 episodes
1990	Ferris Bueller	Ann Peyson	Episode: "Stand-In Deliver"
1991	Doogie Howser, M.D.	Sara Newman	Episode: "Planet of the Dateless"
	The Wonder Years	Sandy Tyler	Episode: "Triangle"
1992	Murder Without Motive: The Edmund Perry Story	Allison Connors	TV-Movie Alternative title: "Best Intentions"
	Quantum Leap	Michelle Temple Cutter	Episode: "Ghost Ship"
	Davis Rules	Kathi	Episode: "A Father Makes All the Difference", Episode: "Someone to Watch Over Them"
	A Private Matter	Mary Beth	TV-Movie Alternative title: "Miss Sherri"
1994	Motorcycle Gang	Leann	TV-Movie
1995	The Buccaneers	Nan St. George	Miniseries
1996, 1998	Spin City	Ashley Schaeffer	12 episodes
1998	Alexandria Hotel
1999	A Season for Miracles	Emilie Thompson	Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie
1999 – 2000	Chicago Hope	Dr. Gina Simon	23 episodes
2001	Mermaid Chronicles Part 1: She Creature	Lily	TV-Movie Alternative title: "She Creature"
2003 – 2004	Karen Sisco	Karen Sisco	10 episodes
2005 – 2006	Threshold	Dr. Molly Anne Caffrey	13 episodes
2007 – 2010	Entourage	Amanda Daniels	10 episodes
2010	Californication	Abby	Season 4 Episodes 1 – 12
2011	Hide	Warren	TV-Movie
2012	Justified	Karen Goodall	Season 3 Episode 2
	Political Animals	Susan Berg	6 episodes
	New Girl[11]	Emma	3 episodes

 

Awards and nominations

 

In 2009, Gugino was honored by the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF). During the Foundation's 34th Anniversary Gala in Washington, D.C., she received NIAF's Special Achievement Award for Entertainment, presented by her close friend, actress Connie Britton.^[12]

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
1999	Blockbuster Entertainment Award	Favorite Supporting Actress in a Suspense	Snake Eyes	Nominated[13]
2008	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	American Gangster	Nominated[14]