Skip to main content
Cara Buono

Cara Buono

Actor · b. 1971 · 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.

Movies24

  • Movie5.6

    Hulk

    2003 · 6.5K votes

  • Movie6.8

    Let Me In

    2010 · 2.3K votes

  • Movie6.2

    Paper Towns

    2015 · 5.2K votes

  • Movie7.2
  • Movie
  • Movie7.6

    Gladiator

    1992 · 421 votes

  • Movie6.8

    Queen of the Ring

    2025 · 68 votes

  • Movie5.7

    The Cowboy Way

    1994 · 170 votes

  • Movie7.1

    The Bad Seed

    2018 · 361 votes

  • Movie7.2
  • Movie5.6

    Emily & Tim

    2015 · 11 votes

  • Movie6.1

    Takedown

    2000 · 187 votes

  • Movie6.2

    All Saints

    2017 · 70 votes

  • Movie6.8

    Happy Accidents

    2000 · 148 votes

  • Movie5.8

    Monsters and Men

    2018 · 78 votes

  • Movie5.2

    Beer League

    2006 · 78 votes

  • Movie5.3

    A Good Marriage

    2014 · 529 votes

  • Movie5.5

    She Came from the Woods

    2023 · 60 votes

  • Movie5.9
  • Movie5.4
  • Movie
  • Movie6.2

    Kicking and Screaming

    1995 · 249 votes

  • Movie6.0

    Man of the Century

    1999 · 10 votes

  • Movie5.4

    Chutney Popcorn

    2001 · 23 votes

Series24

  • TV7.3

    Law & Order

    1990 · 727 votes

  • TV8.0
  • TV7.6

    NCIS

    2003 · 2.6K votes

  • TV7.6
  • TV7.6
  • TV8.0

    Castle

    2009 · 2.2K votes

  • TV7.7

    Hawaii Five-0

    2010 · 1.9K votes

  • TV8.7

    The Sopranos

    1999 · 3.7K votes

  • TV8.6

    Stranger Things

    2016 · 21K votes

  • TV8.1

    Person of Interest

    2011 · 2.2K votes

  • TV7.6

    Elementary

    2012 · 1.9K votes

  • TV7.6

    The Good Wife

    2009 · 707 votes

  • TV8.1

    Mad Men

    2007 · 1.6K votes

  • TV7.3

    Supergirl

    2015 · 4.5K votes

  • TV7.9

    Third Watch

    1999 · 239 votes

  • TV7.1

    Bull

    2016 · 408 votes

  • TV7.1

    Brothers and Sisters

    2006 · 202 votes

  • TV7.3

    The Dead Zone

    2002 · 178 votes

  • TV8.1

    Family Law

    1999 · 12 votes

  • TV7.1

    The Mysteries of Laura

    2014 · 117 votes

  • TV5.8

    The Single Guy

    1995 · 6 votes

  • TV7.7

    God Friended Me

    2018 · 210 votes

  • TV10.0

    Talking Sopranos

    2020 · 1 votes

  • TV6.6

    Miss Match

    2003 · 17 votes