Drea de Matteo
Drea de Matteo, born Andrea Donna de Matteo on January 19, 1972, in Queens, New York, is an Emmy-winning American actress known for her dynamic performances in both television and film. She discovered her passion for acting at a young age and pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film and television from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. De Matteo gained widespread recognition for her role as Adriana La Cerva on HBO's critically acclaimed series *The Sopranos*, where she captivated audiences with her portrayal of a complex character deeply intertwined with the show's dramatic narrative. Her performance earned her an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
Beyond *The Sopranos*, de Matteo has had a varied career, featuring roles in notable television shows such as *Joey*, *Sons of Anarchy*, and *Desperate Housewives*, as well as appearances in films like *Swordfish* and *R Xmas*. In addition to acting, she co-owned a vintage clothing store in Manhattan’s East Village. De Matteo's personal life includes being a mother to two children and having been engaged to musician Shooter Jennings. Her career continues to thrive as she takes on diverse roles across different media platforms.
Subject Terms
Drea de Matteo
Actor
- Born: January 19, 1972
- Birthplace: Queens, New York
Contribution: Drea de Matteo is an Emmy Award–winning actor best known for her roles on the television series The Sopranos (1999–2006), Joey (2004–2006), and Sons of Anarchy (2008–2014).
Background
Andrea Donna de Matteo was born on January 19, 1972, in Queens, New York, to Donna, a playwright and playwriting teacher, and Albert, a furniture manufacturer. De Matteo attended all-girls parochial school after her family moved to New York City’s Upper East Side when she was young.
De Matteo first developed an interest in acting at around the age of ten, when she was unexpectedly brought on stage during a performance of British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famous musical Cats. The experience left a lasting impression on her and ignited dreams of a career in the performing arts. Despite a wild and rebellious adolescence, she continued to follow her dreams of stardom.
De Matteo enrolled at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, initially intending to study directing. She switched to acting at the urging of her friends and soon discovered a passion for it. She earned a bachelor of fine arts in film and television from Tisch in 1996 and soon landed an agent and started to attend acting auditions.
Career
The year she graduated from Tisch, de Matteo made her feature-film debut with a small role in director Brett Parker’s independent romantic comedy ‘M’ Word (1996). Also in 1996, she made her television debut in an episode of the short-lived UPN series Swift Justice. Her big break came in 1999 when she appeared in the pilot of David Chase’s HBO drama series The Sopranos, which was set and filmed in New Jersey. De Matteo was originally cast in a walk-on role in the series as the hostess of an Italian restaurant. Chase, however, was impressed enough with her work that he wrote her character into the series as Adriana La Cerva, the brassy girlfriend of Tony Soprano’s surrogate nephew and troubled heir apparent, Christopher Moltisanti.
The Sopranos premiered on HBO in January 1999 and won instant critical and commercial acclaim. The series aired for six seasons and eighty-six episodes, during which it consistently drew the highest ratings on cable television and garnered legions of devoted viewers and numerous awards. De Matteo earned widespread praise for her portrayal of Adriana, whose character appeared regularly in the first five seasons of the series and in a dream-sequence episode during the sixth season. Adriana was beloved by fans for her outrageously gaudy appearance, tough-girl attitude, and distinctive Jersey patois. The character became one of the focal points of the show’s fifth and penultimate season, in which she is reluctantly turned into an informant by the FBI. That year, de Matteo won an Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series, and in 2005 she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for best supporting actress in a drama series.
During her time on The Sopranos, de Matteo had a steady stream of film work. In 2001, she starred as a Puerto Rican drug dealer in cult director Abel Ferrara’s crime drama ’R Xmas and had small roles in the mainstream Hollywood films Swordfish and Made. The following year, she portrayed a gangster moll in Deuces Wild (2002), a crime film set in the 1950s and directed by Scott Kalvert. De Matteo next played a punk rocker in the low-budget drama Prey for Rock & Roll (2003), opposite Gina Gershon and Lori Petty. In 2005, she had a supporting role as a precinct secretary in the action remake Assault on Precinct 13.
Following The Sopranos, de Matteo was cast in the NBC sitcom Joey (2004–6), an ill-fated Friends spin-off series in which she played Gina Tribbiani, the streetwise hairdresser sister of the titular character (Matt LeBlanc). After Joey was cancelled, de Matteo continued to land other regular small-screen roles, such as the drug-addled Wendy Case Teller on FX’s popular series Sons of Anarchy, which began airing in 2008, and the tough-as-nails Angie Bolen in season 6 of ABC’s hit evening soap Desperate Housewives.
De Matteo also made occasional ventures onto the big screen, appearing in the independent features Broken English (2007), Lake City (2008), and Once More with Feeling (2009) and the film anthology New York, I Love You (2008). In 2013, she starred as a Seattle-based detective in the Lifetime made-for-television movie Stalkers. Her post–Sons of Anarchy career has included roles in several films and television series. These include a guest appearance in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in 2015; roles in the 2015 films Dark Places,Sex, Death and Bowling, and Street Level; and more extended appearances in the series Shades of Blue (2016–18), A Million Little Things (2019), and Paradise City (2019).
In addition to her acting career, de Matteo co-owned a trendy vintage clothing store in Manhattan’s East Village called Filth Mart, which she opened in 1997 with former boyfriend Michael Sportes. The store has since relocated to Los Angeles.
Impact
The runaway success of The Sopranos, which concluded its sixth and final season in June 2007 and has since been credited with changing the face of television, propelled de Matteo and many of her fellow cast members to instant fame. The success of the show led to de Matteo getting typecast in similar roles, but it also opened up career opportunities that were previously unavailable to her. De Matteo has embraced such opportunities and has kept an unpretentious attitude toward Hollywood and stardom.
Personal Life
De Matteo was engaged to the singer-songwriter Shooter Jennings, son of country-music legend Waylon Jennings. She and Jennings have a daughter, Alabama, born in 2007, and a son, Waylon, born in 2011. The couple broke up in 2013.
Principal Works
Television
The Sopranos, 1999–2006
Joey, 2004–6
Sons of Anarchy, 2008–14
Desperate Housewives, 2009–10
Stalkers, 2013
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., 2015
Shades of Blue, 2016–18
A Million Little Things, 2019
Paradise City, 2019
Film
’R Xmas, 2001
Swordfish, 2001
Deuces Wild, 2002
Prey for Rock & Roll, 2003
Assault on Precinct 13, 2005
Broken English, 2007
New York, I Love You, 2009
Once More with Feeling, 2009
Dark Places, 2015
Sex, Death and Bowling, 2015
Street Level, 2015
Bibliography
Gliatto, Tom. “Gritty Woman.” People 14 Oct. 2002: 85. Print.
Jacobs, Marc. “The Soprano Sings: Drea de Matteo.” Paper. Paper, 1 June 2001. Web. 8 Aug. 2013.
Levy, Ariel. “Dying Is Easy, Comedy Is Hard.” New York. New York Media, 13 Sept. 2004. Web. 8 Aug. 2013.
Otto, Jeff. “Interview: Drea de Matteo.” IGN. IGN Entertainment, 14 Jan. 2005. Web. 8 Aug. 2013.
Rorke, Robert. “‘Housewife’ Sings ‘Soprano.’” New York Post. NYP Holdings, 27 Sept. 2009. Web. 8 Aug. 2013.
Settembre, Jeanette. “Lifetime Movie Stalkers Tells Story of Detective Who Battled Obsessive Predators.” New York Daily News. NYDailyNews.com, 8 Apr. 2013. Web. 8 Aug. 2013.