
Cara Buono
Known for ActingBorn 1971-03-01 (age 55)The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA
Born in The Bronx, New York, Buono was raised in a blue-collar family and decided at an early age to make acting her life's ambition. At 11, she showed her connection to her family's work ethic by answering a casting call ad for Harvey Fierstein's "Spookhouse" and landing the role, without any assistance from her family or other adults. Buono began landing roles on television and the New York stage while in her teens and early twenties, and earned a Daytime Emmy nomination as a young victim of sexual abuse in Abby, My Love (1991) (CBS, 1991), which aired as part of the CBS Schoolbreak Special (1984). She soon graduated to minor roles in Stephen Gyllenhaal's Waterland (1992), with Jeremy Irons and Ethan Hawke; as an illegal immigrant in The Cowboy Way (1994), with Woody Harrelson and Kiefer Sutherland; and in Noah Baumbach's much-loved indie comedy, Kicking and Screaming (1995), which reunited her with her "Abby, My Love" co-star, Josh Hamilton. While cultivating her acting career, Buono also graduated from Columbia University with a double major in English and political science in 1995, which she earned in just three years. After graduation, Buono concentrated largely on character roles in independent films and on television. She was the wife and confidante of prison guard Robert Sean Leonard, who served as an earpiece for monstrous 1930s criminal Carl Panzram (James Woods) in Killer: A Journal of Murder (1995), before playing an accident-prone opera singer in love with a young man (Gibson Frazier) with Jazz-Era affectations in the offbeat Man of the Century (1999). She soon added behind-the-camera credits to her expanding resume, including writer/director on the short, Baggage (1997), with Liev Schreiber and Minnie Driver, and served as co-producer and star of the comedy, Two Ninas (1999), about a pair of similarly monikered women (Buono and Amanda Peet) who fell for a very unlucky man. She continues to write and co-wrote "When the Cat's Away" (1999), with Brad Anderson, and wrote an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel, "This Side of Paradise". Buono's screen credits grew more obscure at the launch of the new millennium - art house and film festival circles saw the lesbian drama, Chutney Popcorn (1999), Attention Shoppers (2000), Happy Accidents (2000) with Marisa Tomei and Vincent D'Onofrio. She soon turned to television for wider exposure, and earned it through supporting roles on high profile series like Third Watch (1999) and The Sopranos (1999). In 2007, she joined the cast of the cult favorite, The Dead Zone (2002) (USA, 2002-2007) as Sheriff Anna Turner, who investigated the death of her predecessor (Chris Bruno). During this period, Buono maintained her screen career in features as varied as Ang Lee's Hulk (2003), playing David Banner's mother, who was killed by his genetically-induced rage, and Beer League (2006), and Artie Lange's hapless lay-about love interest. In 2010, she appeared as the divorced mother of Kodi Smit-McPhee in Let Me In (2010), the critically-praised American remake of the Swedish vampire movie, Let the Right One In (2008). That same year, she landed her most widely seen role-to-date on Mad Men (2007), playing Dr. Faye Miller. For her efforts, Buono received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in 2011.Read more
Movies & web series
★ 10.0View details →
Talking Sopranos
2020 · Series
★ 8.6View details →
Stranger Things
2016 · Series
★ 8.7View details →
The Sopranos
1999 · Series
★ 8.1View details →
Person of Interest
2011 · Series
★ 8.1View details →
Mad Men
2007 · Series
★ 8.1View details →
Family Law
1999 · Series
★ 8.0View details →
Castle
2009 · Series
Baggage
★ 8.0View details →
Baggage
1997 · Movie
★ 7.9View details →
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
1999 · Series
★ 7.9View details →
Third Watch
1999 · Series
★ 7.7View details →
God Friended Me
2018 · Series
★ 7.7View details →
Hawaii Five-0
2010 · Series
★ 7.6View details →
Elementary
2012 · Series
★ 7.6View details →
The Good Wife
2009 · Series
★ 7.6View details →
NCIS
2003 · Series
★ 7.6View details →
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
2001 · Series
★ 7.6View details →
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
2000 · Series
★ 7.3View details →
One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5
2026 · Movie
★ 7.6View details →
Victim of Love: The Shannon Mohr Story
1993 · Movie
★ 7.6View details →
Gladiator
1992 · Movie
★ 7.5View details →
River Red
1998 · Movie
★ 7.3View details →
Supergirl
2015 · Series
★ 7.4View details →
In a Class of His Own
1999 · Movie
★ 7.1View details →
The Girl Who Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story
2023 · Movie
★ 7.3View details →
The Dead Zone
2002 · Series
★ 7.1View details →
The Mysteries of Laura
2014 · Series
★ 7.3View details →
Law & Order
1990 · Series
★ 7.0View details →
Bull
2016 · Series
★ 7.0View details →
The Bad Seed
2018 · Movie
★ 7.1View details →
Brothers and Sisters
2006 · Series
★ 6.7View details →
Queen of the Ring
2025 · Movie
★ 6.8View details →
Let Me In
2010 · Movie
★ 6.8View details →
Happy Accidents
2000 · Movie
★ 6.6View details →
The Blacklist: Redemption
2017 · Series
★ 6.8View details →
Deep in My Heart
1999 · Movie
★ 6.5View details →
The Girl from Plainville
2022 · Series
★ 6.6View details →
Miss Match
2003 · Series
★ 6.3View details →
The Romanoffs
2018 · Series
★ 6.2View details →
Things Like This
2025 · Movie
★ 6.2View details →
All Saints
2017 · Movie
★ 6.2View details →
Paper Towns
2015 · Movie
★ 6.3View details →
Waterland
1992 · Movie
★ 6.2View details →
Kicking and Screaming
1995 · Movie
★ 6.1View details →
Takedown
2000 · Movie
★ 5.8View details →
Monsters and Men
2018 · Movie
★ 6.0View details →
Man of the Century
1999 · Movie
★ 5.9View details →
Next Stop Wonderland
1998 · Movie
★ 5.8View details →
The Single Guy
1995 · Series