Michael Imperioli (born March 26, 1966)[1] is an American actor, writer, and musician. He is best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti in the HBO crime drama The Sopranos (1999–2007), which earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2004. He gained recognition in the early part of his career for his role as Spider in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas (1990). He has had supporting roles in films such as Jungle Fever (1991), Bad Boys (1995), The Basketball Diaries (1995), Shark Tale (2004) and The Lovely Bones (2009).
Michael Imperioli | |
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![]() Imperioli in 2007 | |
Born | (1966-03-26) March 26, 1966 (age 56) Mount Vernon, New York, U.S. |
Occupation | Actor, writer, musician |
Years active | 1985–present |
Spouse | Victoria Chlebowski (m. 1996) |
Children | 3 |
Imperioli is a successful screenwriter, co-writing the screenplay for Summer of Sam (1999) with Spike Lee, writing five episodes of The Sopranos, and writing as well as directing the feature film The Hungry Ghosts (2008).
Imperioli was born in Mount Vernon, New York. He is the son of Dan Imperioli, a bus driver and amateur actor,[2] and Claire Imperioli, a department store worker and amateur actress.[3] Aged 11, Imperioli and his family moved to Brewster, New York, and in high school started watching Broadway plays.[3] Imperioli planned on attending pre-med at Columbia University, but was accepted at State University of New York at Albany. Shortly before he was to start college, he instead enrolled at Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute to study acting.[3]
Imperioli has been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and five Emmy Awards for his work as Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos. He won one Emmy for the fifth season of The Sopranos in 2004.[4]
In addition to his role on The Sopranos, Imperioli has appeared in a number of films, including Goodfellas, Jungle Fever, Bad Boys, Malcolm X, The Basketball Diaries, Clockers, Dead Presidents, Girl 6, My Baby's Daddy, Lean on Me, I Shot Andy Warhol, Last Man Standing, Shark Tale, High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story, and Summer of Sam, which he also co-wrote and co-produced. He also wrote five episodes for The Sopranos.[5]
Imperioli served as artistic director of Studio Dante,[6] an Off-Broadway theater he formed with his wife. He is an active member of The Jazz Foundation of America and co-hosted their May 2009 annual benefit concert, "A Great Night in Harlem", at the Apollo Theater, which celebrated the foundation's 20th anniversary.[7] He was a guest on the "San Giuseppe" episode of Mario Batali's Food Network television show Molto Mario. In 2010, Imperioli signed on to play the lead in the ABC television show Detroit 1-8-7.[8] Working with the writer Gabriele Tinti, he wrote the text "Pride" for Tinti's book New York Shots, and participated in a reading of The Way of the Cross at the Queens Museum of Art in 2011.
Imperioli won the Tournament of Stars competition on the cooking show Chopped in 2014, sending $50,000 to his designated charity the Pureland Project, an organization which builds and maintains schools in rural Tibet. In 2016, he guest starred as the angel Uriel on the Fox show Lucifer.[9]
On March 13, 2019, Imperioli was cast in the lead role of Rick Sellitto in the NBC drama series Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector.[10] Imperioli co-hosts a podcast with Steve Schirripa titled Talking Sopranos, which began on April 6, 2020. The two provide inside info as they follow The Sopranos series episode by episode.[11][12] By September 2020, the podcast had reached over five million downloads.[13]
On September 17, 2020, Imperioli and Schirripa signed a deal with HarperCollins book imprint William Morrow and Company to write an oral history of the show;[13] the book titled Woke Up This Morning: The Definitive Oral History of The Sopranos was released on November 2, 2021.[14] In July 2020, he hosted a show on NTS Radio called 632 ELYSIAN FIELDS, which was inspired by A Streetcar Named Desire.[15] In September 2020, Imperioli provided narration for The Whistleblower, a podcast about the 2007 NBA betting scandal.[16]
Imperioli is the guitarist and vocalist for the band Zopa.[17] In 2020, Zopa released their debut album entitled La Dolce Vita.[18]
Imperioli had a narrator cameo in the 2021 Sopranos prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark.[19]
In January 2022, Imperioli was cast in a lead role in the second season of the dark comedy series The White Lotus at HBO.[20]
Imperioli married Victoria Chlebowski in 1996. They have homes in the Upper West Side of Manhattan and in Santa Barbara, California, and have three children. He and his family are avid practitioners of Tae Kwon Do.[21] In 2008, Imperioli became a Buddhist.[22]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1989 | Alexa | Acid Head | |
Lean on Me | George | ||
1990 | Goodfellas | Spider | |
Jacob's Ladder | Doctor | Uncredited | |
1991 | Jungle Fever | James Tucci | |
1992 | Fathers & Sons | Johnny | |
Malcolm X | Reporter at Fire Bombing | ||
1993 | The Night We Never Met | Dry Cleaning Customer #1 | |
Joey Breaker | Larry Metz | ||
Household Saints | Leonard Villanova | ||
1994 | Scenes from the New World | Billy | |
Touch Base | Bennie | ||
Hand Gun | Benny | ||
Men Lie | — | ||
Amateur | Doorman at Club | ||
Post Cards from America | The Hustler | ||
1995 | The Addiction | Missionary | |
Trouble | Ellis | Short film | |
Bad Boys | Jojo | ||
The Basketball Diaries | Bobby | ||
Clockers | Detective 'Jo-Jo' | ||
Flirt | Michael | ||
Dead Presidents | D'ambrosio | ||
Sweet Nothing | Angelo | ||
1996 | Girls Town | Anthony | |
Blixa Bargeld Stole My Cowboy Boots | Johnny | ||
Girl 6 | Scary Caller #30 | ||
I Shot Andy Warhol | Ondine | ||
Trees Lounge | George | ||
Last Man Standing | Giorgio Carmonte | ||
1997 | River Made to Drown In | Allen Hayden | |
The Deli | Matty | ||
Office Killer | Daniel Birch | ||
Under the Bridge | — | ||
1998 | Too Tired to Die | Fabrizio | |
1999 | On the Run | Albert DeSantis | |
Summer of Sam | Midnight | Also writer and executive producer | |
2000 | Auto Motives | Stud | |
2002 | Love in the Time of Money | Will | |
2003 | High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story | Stu Ungar | |
2004 | My Baby's Daddy | Dominic | |
Shark Tale | Frankie | Voice | |
2007 | The Inner Life of Martin Frost | Jim Fortunato | |
The Lovebirds | Vincent | ||
2008 | Stóra Planið | Alexander | |
2009 | Hungry Ghosts | — | Director and writer Nominated—International Film Festival Rotterdam - Tiger Award |
The Lovely Bones | Detective Len Fenerman | ||
2010 | Love & Distrust | Stud | |
2011 | Stuck Between Stations | David | |
2013 | The Call | Alan Denado | |
Oldboy | Chucky | ||
2014 | Foreclosure | Bill Landopolous | |
The Scribbler | Moss | ||
Cantinflas | Michael Todd[23][24] | ||
2015 | The Wannabe | Alphonse | |
2018 | Cabaret Maxime | Bennie Gazza | |
2019 | The Last Full Measure | Jay Ford | |
Primal | Paul Freed | ||
2020 | One Night in Miami | Angelo Dundee | Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture |
2021 | The Many Saints of Newark | Christopher Moltisanti | Voice |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1994 | NYPD Blue | Duane Rollins | Episode: "Dead and Gone" |
1996 | Law & Order | Johnny Stivers | Episode: "Atonement" Credited as Michael Imperiola |
1997 | New York Undercover | Miles Gordon | Episode: "The Last Hurrah" |
Firehouse | Lt. O'Connell | Television movie | |
1998 | Witness to the Mob | Louie Milito | Television movie |
1999–2007 | The Sopranos | Christopher Moltisanti | 79 episodes; also wrote 5 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2004) Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (1999, 2007) Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2002, 2004) Nominated—Golden Nymph Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series (2008) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2001, 2003, 2006-2007) Nominated—PRISM Award for Best Performance in a Drama Series (2003) Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2000-2002, 2004, 2006) |
2002 | Disappearing Acts | Vinney | Television movie |
2004 | The Five People You Meet in Heaven | Captain | Television movie |
2005–2006 | Law & Order | Nick Falco | 5 episodes |
2006 | The Simpsons | Dante, Jr. (voice) | Episode: "The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer" |
2007 | Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom's For One More Day | Charley "Chick" Benetto | Television movie |
2008–2009 | Life on Mars | Detective Ray Carling | 17 episodes |
2010 | Mercy | Harold Pindus | Episode: "We're All Adults" |
The Secret Life of the American Teenager | Dr. Wattabi | Episode: "The Sound of Silence" | |
2010–2011 | Detroit 1-8-7 | Detective Louis "Lou" Fitch | 18 episodes |
2012 | Girls | Powell Goldman | Episode: "Leave Me Alone" |
The Godfather Legacy | Narrator | Voice Television documentary | |
40 | Unknown | Pilot | |
2013 | The Office | Sensei Billy | Episode: "Livin' the Dream" |
2014 | Californication | Rick Rath | 11 episodes |
Rake | Alberto Rinaldi | Episode: "Bigamist" | |
Chopped | Himself | 2 episodes | |
2015–2016 | Mad Dogs | Lex | 10 episodes |
2015 | Saint Francis | Francis Quinlan | Pilot |
2015–2018 | Hawaii Five-0 | Odell Martin | 4 episodes |
2016–2017 | Lucifer | Uriel | 2 episodes |
2016, 2021 | Blue Bloods | Robert Lewis | 3 episodes |
2017 | Dice | Himself | Episode: "Fingerless" |
2018 | Alex, Inc. | Eddie | 10 episodes |
Escape at Dannemora | Andrew Cuomo | Episode: "Part 7" | |
2019 | Watchmen | Video Testimonial Man | Uncredited Episode: "Little Fear of Lightning" |
2019–2020 | Project Blue Book | Edward Rizzuto | 3 episodes |
2020 | Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector | Rick Sellitto | 10 episodes |
2022 | This Fool | Minister Leonard Payne | 3 episodes |
2022 | The White Lotus | Dominic Di Grasso | Season 2 |
Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1999 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | The Sopranos | Won |
2000 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | Nominated | |
2001 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series | Nominated | |
Screen Actors Guild Awards | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | Nominated | ||
2002 | Golden Globe Awards | Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film | Nominated | |
Screen Actors Guild Awards | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | Nominated | ||
2003 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series | Nominated | |
PRISM Awards | PRISM Award for Best Performance in a Drama Series | Nominated | ||
2004 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series | Won | |
Golden Globe Awards | Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film | Nominated | ||
Screen Actors Guild Awards | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | Nominated | ||
2006 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series | Nominated | |
Screen Actors Guild Awards | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | Nominated | ||
2007 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | Won | |
Primetime Emmy Awards | Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series | Nominated | ||
2008 | Monte-Carlo Television Festival | Golden Nymph Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series | Nominated | |
2009 | International Film Festival Rotterdam | International Film Festival Rotterdam - Tiger Award | The Hungry Ghosts | Nominated |
2021 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture | One Night in Miami | Nominated |
General | |
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National libraries | |
Biographical dictionaries | |
Other |