Téa Leoni

Early life and family

Leoni was born in New York City. Her mother, Emily Patterson, was a dietician and nutritionist, and her father, Anthony Pantaleoni, was a corporate lawyer with the firm Fulbright & Jaworski. Leoni's paternal grandfather was of Italian and English descent; he was a nephew of Italian economist and politician Maffeo Pantaleoni. Leoni's paternal grandmother, Polish-American Helenka Adamowska Pantaleoni, a film and stage actress, was the daughter of musicians Józef Adamowski and Antonina Szumowska-Adamowska. Leoni's mother is a native of Amarillo, Texas, and was the niece of actor Hank Patterson. Leoni grew up in Englewood, New Jersey, and New York City, and attended two private schools, Brearley School and The Putney School in Vermont. She attended but did not complete studies at Sarah Lawrence College.

Career

In 1988 Leoni was cast as one of the stars of Angels 88, an updated version of the 1970s show Charlie's Angels. After production delays, the show never aired. The following year, Leoni was cast as Lisa DiNapoli in the NBC daytime soap opera, Santa Barbara. In 1991 she made her film debut with a small role in a comedy Switch, and later played another small part in A League of Their Own (1992).

From 1992 to 1993 Leoni starred with Corey Parker in the short-lived Fox sitcom, Flying Blind. In February 1995 she appeared in the sitcom Frasier, a spinoff from Cheers, as the fiancée of Sam Malone (played by Ted Danson). Later in that year Leoni landed the lead role in the ABC/NBC sitcom The Naked Truth, playing Nora Wilde, a tabloid news journalist. The show ran through 1998. Leoni had the female lead role in the 1995 action comedy film Bad Boys, which was a box office success, grossing over $141 million worldwide.

After leaving television, in 1998 Leoni had the leading role in Deep Impact, a big-budget disaster film about a comet menacing Earth. The film received mixed reviews from critics, but was a success at the box office, grossing $349 million worldwide. She later had main roles in two other big budget movies: romantic comedy The Family Man (2000) co-starring alongside Nicolas Cage, and science fiction film Jurassic Park III (2001) as William H. Macy's character's ex-wife. In 2002 she starred as a film studio executive in Hollywood Ending, directed by Woody Allen, and had a supporting role in the box office bomb crime drama People I Know. In 2004 she appeared as the wife of Adam Sandler's character in the financially unsuccessful comedy-drama Spanglish. In 2005 Leoni starred alongside Jim Carrey in the comedy film Fun with Dick and Jane. The movie grossed $202 million at the box office worldwide.

Leoni co-starred in a number of small films in the late 2000s, including You Kill Me and The Smell of Success. She co-starred opposite Ricky Gervais in the 2008 supernatural comedy-drama Ghost Town. In 2011 she had a supporting role in the heist comedy film, Tower Heist. In 2011 she was also cast alongside Hope Davis as leads in the HBO comedy pilot, Spring/Fall; however, the pilot was not picked up. In 2014 she returned to broadcast television with the leading role in the CBS political drama series, Madam Secretary.

Personal life

Leoni married Neil Joseph Tardio, Jr., a television commercial producer, on June 8, 1991, at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Hope, New Jersey. They divorced in 1995.

Leoni married actor David Duchovny on May 13, 1997, after an eight-week courtship. They have two children: daughter Madelaine West Duchovny (born April 13, 1999) and son Kyd Miller Duchovny (born June 25 2002).

On October 15, 2008, Leoni and Duchovny confirmed that they had been separated "for several months". The media attributed the separation to Duchovny's much publicized sexual addiction. The couple publicly reconciled and were seen frequently together as a family.

On June 29, 2011, CNN reported that Leoni and Duchovny had again split. In 2012, Duchovny stated that he was still married but separated. Duchovny filed for divorce in June 2014, and the couple had agreed to settlement terms by that August.

Leoni has been dating her Madam Secretary co-star Tim Daly, another alum of The Putney School, since December 2014.

Humanitarian work

Leoni was named a UNICEF goodwill ambassador in 2001. Helenka Pantaleoni, her paternal grandmother, had been president of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF for more than 25 years.