Christina Ricci

Christina Ricci is the youngest of four children of Sarah Murdoch and Ralph Ricci. Her family moved from Santa Monica to Montclair, New Jersey, where she attended local schools before enrolling at the Professional Children's School in New York City. Her parents separated when she was a preteen. Ricci has also spoken about her close relationship with her mother, who accompanied her during film work.

Ricci was married to dolly grip James Heerdegen from 2013 to 2021. They have a son, Freddie, born in 2014. She has been married to hairstylist Mark Hampton since 2021, and they have a daughter, Cleopatra, born in December 2021.

Ricci was discovered at age eight after performing in a school production of The Twelve Days of Christmas. She subsequently appeared in spoof commercials on Saturday Night Live, work that earned her a Screen Actors Guild card. Her screen debut came in Mermaids (1990), in which she played Kate Flax alongside Cher and Winona Ryder.

Ricci became widely known the following year as Wednesday Addams in Barry Sonnenfeld's The Addams Family. She reprised the role in Addams Family Values (1993), and her performance in the sequel was singled out by critics. Further child and teen roles in Casper, Now and Then, and Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain, all released in 1995, established her as a popular young star.

At 17, Ricci moved toward more adult-oriented material with her role as Wendy Hood in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm (1997). In 1998, she starred in Buffalo '66, John Waters' Pecker, and The Opposite of Sex. Her portrayal of Dede Truitt in The Opposite of Sex earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress and made her a prominent presence in independent cinema.

Ricci continued with roles in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 200 Cigarettes, and Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. She played Katrina Van Tassel opposite Johnny Depp in the 1999 gothic horror film and won the Saturn Award for Best Actress. In Monster (2003), she portrayed Selby Wall, a fictionalized version of Tyria Moore, opposite Charlize Theron as Aileen Wuornos. The performance was praised for its restraint and complexity, while Theron acknowledged Ricci during her Academy Awards acceptance speech.

Ricci expanded her television work with appearances as Liza Bump on Ally McBeal and Hannah Davies on Grey's Anatomy. Her two-episode performance as a paramedic on Grey's Anatomy earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. She later starred as stewardess Maggie Ryan on the ABC drama Pan Am from 2011 to 2012.

She began producing with Prozac Nation and Pumpkin, and later produced and starred as Lizzie Borden in The Lizzie Borden Chronicles. Her performance brought a Screen Actors Guild nomination. Ricci also served as an executive producer and starred as Zelda Fitzgerald in the series Z: The Beginning of Everything. She made her Broadway debut in 2010 as Mandy in Donald Margulies's play Time Stands Still and later played Hermia in an off-Broadway revival of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Since 2021, Ricci has played the adult Misty Quigley on the Showtime drama Yellowjackets. The role earned her a Primetime Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Misty is a socially isolated healthcare worker whose desire to belong develops into increasingly disturbing behavior, allowing Ricci to combine vulnerability with menace.

Ricci returned to the Addams Family universe in Netflix's Wednesday, playing Marilyn Thornhill, a teacher at Nevermore Academy. She appeared alongside Jenna Ortega, who took over the role of Wednesday Addams, and returned for the show's second season. Her later credits include The Matrix Resurrections, Monstrous, the voice of Catwoman in Batman: Caped Crusader, the audio series Harley Quinn and The Joker: Sound Mind, and the action comedy Guns Up. She has also been announced as a star and executive producer of the Peacock series The Astrology House.

Ricci has no formal acting training and has described her process as highly internal, beginning with the script and focusing on how to deliver what the character requires. Her work in The Addams Family and other dark or unconventional projects contributed to a goth image in the 1990s. Tim Burton characterized her screen presence as possessing an ambiguous quality, while Ricci has discussed the difficulty she faced being considered for conventional leading roles.

Ricci has been the national spokesperson for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network since 2007. She has written about the experiences of people affected by sexual violence and has used her public profile to raise awareness of the organization's work. After criticism from PETA over her wearing reindeer fur, she announced that she would stop wearing animal fur.