Leah Remini

Leah Marie Remini (born June 15, 1970) is an American actress and comedian. She is best known for her role as Carrie Heffernan on The King of Queens (1998–2007). Remini released her memoir Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology on November 3, 2015.

Early life

Leah Remini was born in New York City, in Brooklyn, to Vicki Marshall, a schoolteacher, and George Remini, who owned an asbestos removal company. Her mother is of Austrian Jewish background and her father of Italian (Sicilian) descent. Remini has an older sister, Nicole Remini (born 1969), and four half-sisters. At the age 9, after her mother, Vicki Marshall, joined the Church of Scientology, Remini was raised a Scientologist. Remini moved to Los Angeles at the age of thirteen with her mother. Later on, she would pursue an acting career.

Television career

One of Remini's early television roles was on Who's the Boss? as Charlie Briscoe, which led to a spin-off series entitled Living Dolls, where Remini starred with Halle Berry. The show premiered in late 1989 and ran for 12 episodes before being cancelled.