Trivia

Before the 1993 Oscar ceremony, she told Entertainment Tonight (1981) that her biggest fear was that she would trip on the steps on her way to the stage. She did.

While portraying roommates on A Different World (1987), she and co-star Lisa Bonet were roommates in real life.

Holds dual United States and Italian citizenship.

Godmother of Zoë Kravitz, daughter of Marisa's A Different World (1987) co-star Lisa Bonet.

She is of Italian descent. Her family is from Tuscany, Sicily, Campania, and Calabria.

After her Oscar win for "My Cousin Vinny", Tomei was targeted by a bizarre conspiracy theory, pushed mostly by film critic Rex Reed. Reed said that Tomei hadn't actually won the Oscar, and alternately stated that presenter Jack Palance had read the wrong name off the Oscar broadcast TelePrompter or gotten confused when reading the card listing the Best Supporting Actress winner and said Tomei's name, instead of that of Vanessa Redgrave or Emma Thompson, because it fell last alphabetically. However, the show's producers and Price Waterhouse Cooper vote counters said that, if anything, Reed or other anti-Tomei critics noted happened, a PWC representative had orders to go on stage and state both that a mistake had happened and then announce the actual winner. When this situation really occurred at the 2016 Oscars because La La Land (2016) was mistakenly announced as Best Picture winner because Warren Beatty was given the wrong information (it was a copy of Emma Stone's winning card for Best Actress), PWC handled this situation exactly as they had described by bringing out the winning card for Moonlight (2016). This fully debunked Rex Reed's conspiracy theory one final indisputable time.

Attended Boston University.

Has a tattoo of the Egyptian Eye of Ra (protection, good luck abundance) on her right foot.

Turned down the female lead in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) which went to Andie MacDowell.

Was offered the role of Trinity in The Matrix (1999), but she turned it down.

One of People Magazine's Most Beautiful People 2009.

Discovered on "Finding Your Roots" she is a distant cousin of Julianne Moore.

Revealed to Jon Stewart on The Daily Show (1996) that she sometimes travels under an Italian passport. (Oct 2004)

In the early 1990s, she had a relationship with Robert Downey Jr. (her co-star in Chaplin (1992) and Only You (1994)). In 1999, she was with actor Dana Ashbrook and had a relationship with Frank Pugliese. She (as of 2009) now dates actor Logan Marshall-Green, who is twelve years her junior.

Her mother was an English teacher at Cavallaro Junior High School in Brooklyn, New York.

In 2003, she played the title role in a revival of Oscar Wilde's "Salome" in an Actors Studio production, directed by Estelle Parsons, on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre; co-stars included Al Pacino, Dianne Wiest, and David Strathairn.

Was the 104th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for My Cousin Vinny (1992) at The 65th Annual Academy Awards (1993) on March 29, 1993.

Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1991" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 43.

Until Captain America: Civil War (2016), she had never starred in a sequel or a prequel to a film.

Joins Indian and Pakistani actresses in performances of The Vagina Monologues on a Bombay stage to mark International Women's Day. (March 2004)

Attended Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, New York. Her brother, Adam Tomei, and Darren Aronofsky also attended this high school.

Auditioned for the role of "Dorothy Boyd" in Jerry Maguire (1996).

Older sister of actor Adam Tomei.

Both she and her Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) co-star Rosemary Harris have played May Parker, the aunt of Peter Parker / Spider-Man, in films based on Marvel Comics: Harris in Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007) and Tomei in Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017).

She is a lifelong Democrat.

Is one of 25 actresses who have received an Academy Award for their performance in a comedy; hers being for My Cousin Vinny (1992). The others in chronological order, are: Claudette Colbert (It Happened One Night (1934)), Loretta Young (The Farmer's Daughter (1947)), Josephine Hull (Harvey (1950)), Judy Holliday (Born Yesterday (1950)), Audrey Hepburn (Roman Holiday (1953)), Goldie Hawn (Cactus Flower (1969)), Glenda Jackson (A Touch of Class (1973)), Lee Grant (Shampoo (1975)), Diane Keaton (Annie Hall (1977)), Maggie Smith (California Suite (1978)), Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard (1980)), Jessica Lange (Tootsie (1982)), Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck (1987)), Cher (Moonstruck (1987)), Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy (1989)), Mercedes Ruehl (The Fisher King (1991)), Dianne Wiest (Bullets Over Broadway (1994)), Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite (1995)), Frances McDormand (Fargo (1996)), Helen Hunt (As Good as It Gets (1997)), Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love (1998)), Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love (1998)), Penélope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)), and Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook (2012)).

Announced in 7 February 2005 edition of New York Times, she has signed to join the cast of Neil LaBute's "This Is How It Goes" at New York's Public Theatre, beginning previews, March 8, 2005, co-starring Ben Stiller. (February 2005)

No relation to Concetta Tomei.

Is one of 22 Oscar-winning actresses to have been born in the state of New York. The others are Alice Brady, Teresa Wright, Anne Revere, Celeste Holm, Claire Trevor, Judy Holliday, Shirley Booth, Susan Hayward, Patty Duke, Anne Bancroft, Barbra Streisand, Jane Fonda, Lee Grant, Beatrice Straight, Whoopi Goldberg, Mercedes Ruehl, Mira Sorvino, Susan Sarandon, Jennifer Connelly, Melissa Leo and Anne Hathaway.

Born on the same day as Chelsea Noble.