Carla Gugino

Carla Gugino (born August 29, 1971) is an American actress best known for her roles of Ingrid Cortez in the Spy Kids trilogy and the title character of the TV series Karen Sisco.

She was born in Sarasota, Florida to an Irish-Italian father and a mother of English descent. Her mother moved the family to Paradise, California, when she was four years old. Despite moving around California a great deal as a child, Carla Gugino remained a straight-A student and graduated valedictorian. At the age of 15 she was spotted by a modeling agency in San Diego and moved to New York. This was unusual as at only 5 feet 4 inches (1.65 meters) tall, she was considered too short for catwalk work. Finding the experience too much, Gugino moved back to California that summer. Partly at the suggestion of her aunt, game show model Carol Merrill, she subsequently studied acting.

Carla Gugino has starred in many films including art-house film Lovelife along with Saffron Burrows and Sherilyn Fenn, Snake Eyes (1998), Judas Kiss (which she also co-produced, 1998), the three Spy Kids films, Son in Law, The One with Jet Li, and Sin City. Her most recent role is in Night at the Museum.

She also played Ashley Schaeffer in the television series Spin City. Gossip suggested Gugino was removed after twelve episodes because Tracy Pollan—wife of star Michael J. Fox—felt her chemistry with Fox was too good. She starred in the short lived CBS science fiction series, Threshold. In 2004, she starred in Roundabout Theatre Company's After the Fall opposite Six Feet Under's Peter Krause. In late 2006, she will begin the Off-Broadway play by Tennessee Williams, Suddenly Last Summer opposite actress Blythe Danner

Carla Gugino has also appeared in a wide range of TV programs including ALF, Doogie Howser, M.D., Saved by the Bell, Who's the Boss? and The Wonder Years, and is featured in the video to Bon Jovi's 1994 song "Always" and also on the last season of Chicago Hope as brain surgeon Dr Gina Simon. Gugino also frequently appears in films written and directed by her longtime boyfriend Sebastian Gutierrez, as they've worked together on several films in the past. Their latest collaboration is the vampire horror film Rise: Blood Hunter starring Lucy Liu as a reporter who is turned into a vampire against her will. She then pursues the vampire sect that turned her. Gugino plays a member of the vampire sect. The film will be in limited release beginning June 1, 2007.

Gugino played Vincent Chase's new agent, Amanda, in the second half of Entourage's third season for a couple of episodes. Gugino appeared nude in the May 2007 issue of Allure.