Carla N. Gugino (born August 29, 1971) is an American actress known for her roles of
Sally Jupiter in
Watchmen, Vincent Chase's agent, Amanda, in season 3 of
Entourage, Ingrid Cortez in the
Spy Kids film trilogy, and as the lead characters of the television series
Karen Sisco and
Threshold.
Biography
Early life
Gugino was born in
Sarasota, Florida, of Italian, English, and Irish ancestry.
[threshold star carla gugino - Celebrity and Entertainment News | TVGuide.com][_Karen_Sisco_.shtml Floridian: Take 2, 'Karen Sisco'] Her parents separated when she was two.
[A Woman We Love: Carla Gugino - Esquire] Her father, Carl Gugino, is an orthodontist. Her mother moved the family to
Paradise, California, when she was four years old. Despite moving around California a great deal as a child, Carla Gugino remained a straight-A student and graduated valedictorian. At the age of 15 she was spotted by a
modeling agency in
San Diego and moved to New York. This was unusual as at only 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) tall, she was considered too short for catwalk work. Finding the experience too much, Gugino moved back to California that summer. Partly at the suggestion of her aunt, game show model
Carol Merrill, she subsequently studied acting.
[Profile - at Hollywood.com]
Career
Gugino has starred in many films including art-house film
Lovelife along with
Saffron Burrows and
Sherilyn Fenn,
Snake Eyes with
Nicolas Cage (1998),
Judas Kiss (which she also co-produced, 1998), the three
Spy Kids films,
Son in Law,
The One with
Jet Li, and
Sin City. Her most recent roles came in box office hits such as
Night at the Museum (2006) and
American Gangster (2007).
She played Ashley Schaeffer in the first season of the
Michael J. Fox television series
Spin City. She also starred in the short lived
CBS science fiction series
Threshold and in ABC's
Karen Sisco, in which she recreated the law-enforcement role of
Jennifer Lopez from the film
Out of Sight.
Gugino appeared in Roundabout Theatre Company's
After the Fall opposite
Six Feet Unders Peter Krause. In late 2006, she will begin the Off-Broadway play by Tennessee Williams, Suddenly Last Summer opposite actress Blythe Danner.
Gugino has also appeared in a wide range of TV programs including
ALF,
Doogie Howser, M.D.,
Saved by the Bell,
Who's the Boss? and
The Wonder Years, and is featured in the video to
Bon Jovi's 1994 song "
Always" and an Aerosmith video and also on the last season of
Chicago Hope as brain surgeon Dr. Gina Simon. Gugino also frequently appears in films written and directed by her longtime boyfriend
Sebastian Gutierrez, as they've worked together on several films in the past.
[{7F0BC77E-F70A-4A61-8CF2-972AD95CFEED} Interviews & Features | TVGuide.com]
Gugino played
Vincent Chase's new agent, Amanda, in the second half of
Entourages third season for a couple of episodes and reprised that role in the fifth season. Gugino appeared nude in the May 2007 issue of Allure.[Stars line up for naked spread - ContactMusic.com] after a previous on-film semi-nude appearance in Sin City as Lucille (2005).
She played
Sally Jupiter, the original
Silk Spectre, in the
Watchmen movie,
['Watchmen' adds Gugino as do-gooder] and had roles in
The Unborn and
Race to Witch Mountain (opposite
Dwayne Johnson).
She played the female lead in the serial killer thriller
Righteous Kill opposite
Robert De Niro and
Al Pacino. She also stars in a new film directed by Gutierrez,
Women in Trouble, as a pornographic actress named Elektra Luxx.
Gugino starred in Chicago's
Goodman Theater production of
Eugene O'Neill's
Desire Under the Elms January 17-February 17, 2009, in the role of Abby.
The New York Times lauds, "She
[1] is simply magnificent...it is impossible to look away."
[www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/theater/reviews/04elms.html?_r=1&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink] On April 20, 2009, Gugino received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Outstanding Actress In a Play for her performance in Desire Under the Elms.
Personal life
Her partner is writer/director
Sebastian Gutierrez, with whom she has worked
Karen Sisco and
Rise: Blood Hunter. The couple live in
Los Angeles, where she spends her spare time practicing
yoga.
Filmography
