Early life

Tunney was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a car salesman father and a bartender mother. Tunney is Irish American; her father was born in Straide, County Mayo, Ireland, while her maternal grandparents were from Clare Island. Tunney grew up in Orland Park, a southwest suburb of Chicago. She was raised Roman Catholic, attended Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park and the Chicago Academy for the Arts in Chicago, and resided in Palos Heights, also in the Chicago area. She is a cousin of Chicago Alderman Tom Tunney.

Career

At the age of 19, Tunney moved to Los Angeles, California, and obtained several recurring television roles on Class of '96, Law & Order, Dream On, and Life Goes On. She gave her breakthrough performance as a suicidal teenager in Empire Records (with a shaved head) and attracted further attention by playing a witch in The Craft.

In 1997, Tunney starred in (her husband at the time) Bob Gosse's Niagara, Niagara with Henry Thomas in a performance which garnered her the Best Actress award Volpi Cup at the 1997 Venice International Film Festival. Tunney also was featured opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1999 supernatural action film End of Days.

She starred in the pilot episode of House as a kindergarten teacher who collapses before her class and descends into aphasia; she was credited as a "special guest star". She portrayed Veronica Donovan on the first season of Prison Break, credited third after two main characters, and left the show after the premiere episode of the second season. She had a minor role in the film August released on July 11, 2008. Tunney also starred opposite Simon Baker in the CBS drama series The Mentalist, playing Teresa Lisbon.

Personal life

Tunney married producer and director Bob Gosse on October 4, 1997; they divorced in 2006. In 2009, Tunney was engaged to Australian writer and director Andrew Dominik but they called off their engagement by August 2010. Tunney became engaged to interior designer Nicky Marmet on December 25, 2012, while on vacation in Rio de Janeiro.

On May 15, 2016, she announced on Instagram she is expecting her first child.

On June 28, 2006, Tunney won the fifth table of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown's eighth season, finishing ahead of Christopher Meloni, Macy Gray, Joy Behar, and Andy Dick, moving on to the final cut. The finale aired on July 5, 2006, where she competed against Jason Alexander, Michael Ian Black, Ida Siconolfi, and Keegan-Michael Key. Tunney came in second, behind Alexander, earning $200,000 for The Children's Health Fund. In August 2006, Tunney played in the World Series of Poker after having her entrance fee covered by the online cardroom PokerRoom.com.

Filmography

Film and television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Encino Man	Ella
1992	Perry Mason: The Case of Reckless Romeo	Sandra Turner	TV movie
1993	JFK: Reckless Youth	Kathleen 'Kick' Kennedy	TV movie
1993	Cutters	Deborah	TV series
1994	Law & Order	Jill Templeton	Episode: "Mayhem"
1995	Empire Records	Debra
1996	The Craft	Sarah Bailey	MTV Movie Award for Best Fight
1996	Riders of the Purple Sage	Elizabeth 'Bess' Erne, Oldring's Masked Rider/Daughter
1997	Julian Po	Sarah
1997	Niagara, Niagara	Marcy
1998	Montana	Kitty
1998	Rescuers: Stories of Courage: Two Families	Melvina 'Malka' Csizmadi
1999	End of Days	Christine York
2000	Vertical Limit	Annie Garrett
2000	Supernova	Danika Lund
2001	Investigating Sex	Zoe
2002	The Secret Lives of Dentists	Laura
2002	Cherish	Zoe
2003	Abby Singer	Herself (Cameo)
2003	The In-Laws	Angela Harris
2003	The Twilight Zone	Edie Durant	Episode: "Developing"
2004	Paparazzi	Abby Laramie
2004	House	Rebecca Adler	Pilot episode
2004	Shadow of Fear	Wynn French
2005	The Zodiac	Laura Parish
2005	Runaway	Carly
2005-2006	Prison Break	Veronica Donovan	Season 1, and the season 2 episode "Manhunt"
2006	Hollywoodland	Leonore Lemmon
2006	The Darwin Awards	Zoe
2006	Open Window	Izzy
2008	August	Melanie
2008	The Burning Plain	Laura
2008	The Two Mr. Kissels	Nancy Kissel
2008-2015	The Mentalist	Teresa Lisbon	TV series
2009	Passenger Side	Theresa
2012	See Girl Run	Emmie
2015	My All-American	Gloria Steinmark	TV series
2016	Love (TV series)	SLAA Woman

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result
1997	MTV Movie Awards	Best Fight	The Craft	Won
1997	Volpi Cup	Best Actress	Niagara, Niagara	Won
1999	Independent Spirit Awards	Best Female Lead	Niagara, Niagara	Nominated
2001	Blockbuster Entertainment Awards	Favorite Actress - Action	Vertical Limit	Nominated
2006	Boston Film Festival	Festival Prize	Open Window	Won
2009	People's Choice Awards	Best New Series	The Mentalist	Won
2015	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Crime Drama TV	The Mentalist	Nominated
		Favorite TV Crime Drama Actress		Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]