Christina Ricci

Christina Ricci (/ˈriːtʃi/ REE-chee; born February 12, 1980) is an American actress. Known for playing unusual characters with a dark edge, Ricci works mostly in independent productions, but she has also appeared in numerous box-office hits. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

Ricci made her film debut at age ten in Mermaids (1990), which was followed by a breakout role as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family (1991) and its 1993 sequel. Subsequent roles in Casper and Now and Then (both 1995) established her as a teen idol. In her late teens, she moved into adult-oriented projects such as The Ice Storm (1997), Buffalo '66, The Opposite of Sex, Pecker (all 1998), 200 Cigarettes, and Sleepy Hollow (both 1999). Her other credits include The Man Who Cried (2000), Prozac Nation (2001), Pumpkin (2002), Anything Else, Monster (both 2003), Cursed (2005), Penelope, Black Snake Moan (both 2006), Speed Racer (2008), Bel Ami (2012), and The Matrix Resurrections (2021).

On television, Ricci played Liza Bump on the final season of Ally McBeal (2002) and had a guest role on Grey's Anatomy in 2006, for which she received an Emmy Award nomination. She also starred on Pan Am (2011–2012), produced and starred in the series The Lizzie Borden Chronicles (2015) and Z: The Beginning of Everything (2017), and appeared as Marilyn Thornhill on the first and second seasons of Wednesday (2022–present). Ricci has played Misty Quigley on Yellowjackets since 2021, receiving nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. She voiced Catwoman / Selina Kyle in the animated series Batman: Caped Crusader (2024).

In 2010, Ricci made her Broadway debut in the Donald Margulies play Time Stands Still. She is the national spokesperson for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN).

Ricci was born in Santa Monica, California on February 12, 1980, the youngest of four children of Sarah (née Murdoch) and Ralph Ricci. Her father had a varied career, including jobs as a gym teacher, lawyer, drug counselor, and primal scream therapist. Ricci has referred to her father as a "failed cult leader." Her mother worked as a Ford Agency model during the 1960s and later became a real estate agent. Regarding her surname, Ricci has stated that she has Italian, Irish, and Scottish ancestry.

Ricci's family moved to Montclair, New Jersey, where she attended Edgemont Elementary School, Glenfield Middle School, Montclair High School, and Morristown–Beard School. She later attended the Professional Children's School in New York City. Ricci's parents separated when she was a preteen. In interviews she has been vocal about her childhood, particularly her parents' divorce and her turbulent relationship with her father.

At the age of eight, Ricci was discovered by a local theater critic when she starred in a school production of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Another child was originally cast in the part, but Ricci devised a plan to secure the role for herself: she taunted her rival so much that he punched her. When she told on him, he lost the part. She later recalled, "I've always been a really ambitious person. I guess that's the first time it really reared its ugly head". Soon thereafter, she featured in a pair of spoof commercials on Saturday Night Live. The first of these featured Ricci at a birthday party in which biomedical waste fell out of a burst piñata, parodying the real-life dumping of waste in the rivers of the East Coast. This gained Ricci her SAG-AFTRA card.

Ricci's film debut was in Mermaids (1990), where she played Kate Flax. She also appeared in the music video for "The Shoop Shoop Song", which featured on the film's soundtrack. She portrayed the morbidly precocious Wednesday Addams in the following year's The Addams Family, Barry Sonnenfeld's big-budget adaptation of the cartoon of the same name, and reprised the role for its 1993 follow-up, Addams Family Values. Both films were financially profitable, grossing over US$300 million between them. Critics singled out Ricci's performance as a particular highlight of Values, with Variety believing she brought "a depth to her character well beyond her years".