A beautiful actress with a distinctive, honeyed, husky
voice, Leoni developed an interest in acting at an early age encouraged by
her grandmother, a Broadway performer. She dropped out of college to tour
the world and upon her return to the US, was cast in the busted pilot
"Angels '88", a remake of the 1970s "Charlie's Angels". She made her film
debut as the "dream girl" in Blake Edwards' gender-bending "Switch" (1991).
Leoni garnered rave reviews for her nonstereotypical portrayal of a
flamboyant blonde bombshell in the Fox sitcom "Flying Blind" (1992-93). She
was criticized for an infamous interview in connection with that show in
which she said there wasn't enough sex on TV, at least not enough
"all-American, healthy, fun sex." With her great looks and flamboyant style,
Leoni landed the title role in the Fox TV-movie "The Counterfeit Contessa"
(1994). As Gina, a streetwise Brooklyn woman swept into New York society and
romance with an attorney when she is mistaken for an Italian countess, Leoni
earned critical kudos. She and producer Chris Thompson developed the idea
for "The Naked Truth" (ABC, 1995-96) in which Leoni created the role of Nora
Wilde, a formerly rich divorcee forced to become a tabloid newspaper
photographer. 5 Leoni's additional feature film credits include Penny
Marshall's "A League of Their Own" (1992), in which Leoni accidentally hit
Madonna with a baseball. In Lawrence Kasdan's overlong oater "Wyatt
Earp"(1994), she shone as a tough frontier prostitute. Leoni co-starred with
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in "Bad Boys" (1995) as a sexy crime witness
who causes two Miami drug enforcement cops to exchange identities. The
following year, she once again showed her sultry appeal in David O Russell's
"Flirting With Disaster". 5In May 1997, Leoni married actor David Duchovny. |