Raymond Albert "Ray" Romano (born December 21, 1957) is an American actor, golfer, writer, and stand-up comedian, best known for his role on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.
Early life
Romano was born in Queens, New York of Italian ancestry (his father's family was originally from the commune-town of Trenta, in the Province of Cosenza, in the Calabria region of Italy).[citation needed] His mother, Lucie, was a piano teacher, and his father, Albert Romano, was a realtor and an engineer.[1] He grew up in the Queens neighborhood of Forest Hills.[2] Romano attended elementary and middle school at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Forest Hills. After transferring from Archbishop Molloy High School, Romano graduated from Hillcrest High School in 1975.[3] He was in the same high school class as Fran Drescher and later appeared on Drescher's sitcom The Nanny as an old classmate. Before breaking into show business, Romano briefly attended Queens College, in Flushing, New York, where he had majored in accounting. Romano quit going to Queens College after gaining only 15 credits in three years. However, he would later return, making it to the Dean's List for three years while studying accounting.
Career
His early comedy career included many outlets such as Comedy Central, where he had been a recurring guest voice on the show Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. He also was a contestant on Star Search in the stand-up comedy category. He was originally cast to play "Joe" on the American television sitcom NewsRadio, but was fired, to be replaced by Joe Rogan. He then appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman doing his stand up routine which formed his ties with CBS. Shortly thereafter, he became the star of his own show, Everybody Loves Raymond on CBS, that featured a cast and format more suitable to Romano's brand of humor.
Romano and his comedian friend Kevin James starred in the salesman comedy Grilled, as two guys of the same profession who are both very desperate to land a big sale. Romano was featured on a 2000 episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, on which he won US$125,000 for the NYPD's D.A.R.E. Unit. His older brother, Richard Romano (born in 1956) is a sergeant with the NYPD. He also has a younger brother, Robert Romano (born 1965).
In 2001, Romano was named one of E!'s top twenty entertainers of the year. In the same year, he was featured with his brother (a teacher at a school in Long Island) on a New York Police Department recruiting poster. In 2004, he became the highest paid television actor in history for his role of Raymond on CBS's Everybody Loves Raymond. It was later revealed on E! that he had broken another record by his show having the highest revenue, at US$3.9 billion.
On December 13, 2003, Romano was featured as a special guest star, sending a birthday card to Bob Barker in his eightieth-birthday bash on the seventh "Million Dollar Spectacular" special of the long-running daytime CBS series The Price Is Right.
Romano was the subject of the documentary film 95 Miles to Go. The film documents Romano's road-trip for a series of gigs across the south of the United States. The film was released in theaters on April 7, 2006 by ThinkFilm.[4] In August 2006, Romano was interviewed in front of a live audience at UCLA by fellow stand-up veteran, David Steinberg, for an episode of Sit Down Comedy with David Steinberg. The program first aired on the TV Land network in March 2007.
Romano is set to return to TV with a new dramedy for TNT in 2009 called Men of a Certain Age, which he co-created with former Everybody Loves Raymond writer Mike Royce.
Personal life
Romano married his wife Anna in 1987. They met while working at a bank together. He had asked out two other co-workers before Anna agreed to go on a date with him. Together, they have four children: one daughter Alexandra (born 1990), and three sons: twins Matthew and Gregory (born 1993) and Joseph Raymond (born February 16, 1998).
Romano's on-screen daughter for Everybody Loves Raymond was named after his real-life daughter. Also, in the series pilot, Ray and Debra's twin boys were named after Gregory and Matthew, Romano's real twin sons, but Romano felt it was too weird to have all his TV kids have the same names as his real kids, so they changed the twins' names to Geoffrey and Michael on screen. Romano's real-life daughter Alexandra "Ally" Romano made several appearances on Everybody Loves Raymond as Molly, the best friend of his on-screen daughter Ally, and the daughter of Ray Barone's arch-nemesis, Peggy the Cookie Lady. Romano's father, Albert Romano, also appears on the show as "Albert", one of Frank Barone's lodge buddies in the episodes "Debra at the Lodge", and "Boys' Therapy".
Romano is an avid fan of both baseball's New York Mets[5] and football's New York Jets. He and his sons are often seen at the games.
Romano competed in the 2007, 2008 and 2009 World Series of Poker.
In summer 2009, Romano chose to star in the second season of The Golf Channel's original series The Haney Project, where Tiger Woods' coach Hank Haney attempts to improve the golf games of different celebrities and athletes. Charles Barkley starred in the first season. Romano's goals are to finish the show being able to break 80.[6]
Filmography
Writing Credits
Everybody Loves Raymond
In addition to being the star and producer of Everybody Loves Raymond, Romano was also a member of the writing staff. This is a list of Raymond episodes he co-wrote with other writers of the show.
Season One
- "Why Are We Here?" (with Tom Paris)
Season Two
Season Three
Season Four
Season Five
Season Six
- "Jealous Robert" (with Tom Caltabiano)
- "Talk to Your Daughter" (with Tucker Cawley)
- "The First Time" (with Tom Caltabiano & Mike Royce)
Season Seven
Season Nine
Awards
Bibliography
- (1999) Everything and a Kite (non-fiction)
- (2005) Raymie, Dickie and the Bean (children's)
- (2004) Everybody Loves Raymond: Our Family Album (fiction)
References
External links
