Vera Farmiga

Description

Vera Ann Farmiga (born August 6, 1973) is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the 2006 films Running Scared and The Departed. <p>Vera Farmiga (pronounced far-MEE-guh), the second oldest of seven children, was born in Essex County, New Jersey and grew up in Irvington, New Jersey, the daughter of Michael and Luba Farmiga, Ukrainian immigrants. She was raised in an insular Ukrainian American community, not speaking English until the age of six. She attended a Ukrainian Catholic school in Newark and toured with a Ukrainian folk-dancing ensemble. In 1991, Farmiga graduated from Hunterdon Central Regional High School. <p>Although she originally intended to become an optometrist, Farmiga attended Syracuse University's School of Visual and Performing Arts. She made her Broadway debut in 1996 as an understudy in the play Taking Sides. The same year, she starred as Miranda in the American Conservatory Theater production of The Tempest. Throughout the late 1990s, she...