Biography
First earning fame as a witty, agile comic actress on TV, smart, leggy beauty Téa Leoni was poised for Hollywood movie stardom by the late '90s. Born Elizabeth Téa Pantaleoni and raised in New York City, Leoni graduated from boarding school in Vermont and headed to Sarah Lawrence College to study psychology. After dropping out to travel for several months, Leoni intended to finish college at Harvard. Though she had never planned on acting, Leoni auditioned on a dare for a planned TV remake of
Charlie's Angels and was cast. Though the 1988 writer's strike killed the series, Leoni opted to stay in Hollywood. After several years of modeling and TV commercials, Leoni made her film debut as the "Dream Girl" in
Blake Edwards' farce
Switch (1991). A small part in
A League of Their Own (1992) and starring roles in the short-lived Fox sitcom
Flying Blind (1992) and the TV movie
The Counterfeit Contessa (1994) brought Leoni more attention. While she co-starred as the obligatory female-witness-in-peril in the blockbuster actioner
Bad Boys (1995), Leoni's gift for acid wit and goofy physical comedy turned her into a TV star that same year in the sitcom
The Naked Truth. Despite a network change,
The Naked Truth lasted three seasons; Leoni further bolstered her comic reputation with her performance as a high-strung psychology student in David O. Russell's excellent screwball comedy
Flirting With Disaster (1996). While
The Naked Truth mined TV laughs out of tabloids, Leoni's own personal life became paparazzi fodder when she married
X-Files heartthrob
David Duchovny in 1997. After taking a turn for the serious as a reporter in the first 1998 asteroid blockbuster
Deep Impact, Leoni took a break from acting to have a daughter with Duchovny in 1999. Leoni returned to movies in 2000 with a charming performance as
Nicolas Cage's beloved in the syrupy dramedy
The Family Man. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide