Leah Remini

Leah Remini was born to Vicki Marshall and George Remini, who owned an asbestos removal company. She has an older sister, Nicole Remini, and four half-sisters. Her mother has Austrian Jewish ancestry, while her father had Sicilian Italian ancestry.

Remini met actor and musician Angelo Pagán at a Cuban restaurant in Los Angeles in 1996. They married on July 19, 2003, and had one daughter, Sofia Bella, born on June 16, 2004. Pagán also has three sons from previous relationships. Remini and Pagán announced their divorce in 2024, and it was finalized on October 11 of that year.

Remini began appearing on television in the late 1980s, with roles on Head of the Class and Who's the Boss?. Her first starring role came in the Who's the Boss? spin-off Living Dolls, where she appeared alongside Halle Berry. She later had recurring roles on Saved by the Bell, Cheers, and Evening Shade, as well as leading parts in First Time Out and Fired Up.

In 1994, Remini auditioned for Monica Geller on Friends. Courteney Cox received the role, but Remini later appeared in the episode “The One with the Birth.” Her career-defining role arrived in 1998, when she was cast as Carrie Heffernan on The King of Queens. The CBS sitcom ran for nine seasons through 2007, with Remini starring opposite Kevin James.

Her film credits include Old School (2003), Mad Families, The Clapper, and Handsome (all 2017), and Second Act (2018), in which she starred opposite Jennifer Lopez. Remini reunited with Kevin James in Kevin Can Wait, playing Vanessa Cellucci from 2017 to 2018. She also co-hosted The Talk, competed on Dancing with the Stars, hosted People Puzzler, and served as a judge on So You Think You Can Dance.

Remini was raised in the Church of Scientology after her mother joined when Remini was eight. At 13, Remini and her sister Nicole were taken to Scientology's Sea Organization. The family left the Sea Organization within the same year and moved to Los Angeles, where Remini worked while continuing to pursue acting.

Remini left Scientology in 2013. She detailed her experience in the 2015 memoir Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, which reached number one on The New York Times Best Seller list. She later discussed her departure publicly and said that she was embracing Catholicism.

In 2016, Remini created, hosted, and executive produced the A&E documentary series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. The three-season program featured former members discussing their experiences with the organization. It won two Primetime Emmy Awards and received honors from the Television Critics Association, the Producers Guild of America, and other organizations. Since 2020, Remini has co-hosted the podcast Scientology: Fair Game with Mike Rinder. In 2023, she filed a lawsuit against the Church of Scientology and David Miscavige, accusing them of harassment, surveillance, defamation, and psychological torture.

Remini left school with an eighth-grade education while pursuing acting and living within Scientology. In 2021, she was accepted into New York University's associate degree program in liberal arts. She earned an Associate in Arts degree from NYU in January 2024 and later completed a bachelor's degree in sociology with a concentration in psychology, graduating summa cum laude in 2026.

Her nonfiction work has made education, religious experiences, and the treatment of former Scientology members recurring subjects of her public advocacy. Her documentary work earned awards including the 2017 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Informational Series or Special and the 2020 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special.