Short Biography

Raymond Albert "Ray" Romano (born December 21, 1957) is an American actor, writer and stand-up comedian, best known for his role in the long running sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. His other acting credits include Ice Age and its sequel Ice Age: The Meltdown.

Early life

Romano, an Italian-American (his father`s family was originally from the commune-town of Trenta, in the Province of Cosenza, in the Calabria region of Italy), was born in Queens, New York. His mother, Lucie, was a piano teacher, and his father, Albert Romano, was a realtor and an engineer. He grew up in the Queens neighborhood of Forest Hills. Romano attended elementary and middle school at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Forest Hills. After transferring from Archbishop Molloy High School, Romano graduated from Hillcrest High School in 1975.He was in the same high school class as Fran Drescher and later appeared on Drescher`s sitcom The Nanny as an old classmate. Before breaking into show business, Romano briefly attended Queens College, in Flushing, New York, where he had majored in accounting. Romano quit going to Queens College after gaining only 15 credits in three years. However, he would later return, making it to the Dean`s List for three years while studying accounting.

Career

His early comedy career included many outlets such as Comedy Central, where he had been a recurring guest voice on the show Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. He also was a contestant on Star Search in the stand-up comedy category. He was originally cast to play "Joe" on the American television sitcom NewsRadio, but was fired, to be replaced by Joe Rogan. He then appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman doing his stand up routine which formed his ties with CBS. Shortly thereafter, he became the star of his own show, Everybody Loves Raymond on CBS, that featured a cast and format more suitable to Romano`s brand of humor.

Romano and his comedian friend Kevin James starred in the salesman comedy Grilled, as two guys of the same profession who are both very desperate to land a big sale. Romano was featured on a 2000 episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, on which he won US$125,000 for the NYPD`s D.A.R.E. Unit. His older brother, Richard Romano (born in 1956) is a sergeant with the NYPD. He also has a younger brother, Robert Romano (born 1965).

In 2001, Romano was named one of E!`s top twenty entertainers of the year. In the same year, he was featured with his brother (a teacher at a school in Long Island) on a New York Police Department recruiting poster. In 2004, he became the highest paid television actor in history for his role of Raymond on CBS`s Everybody Loves Raymond. It was later revealed on E! that he had broken another record by his show having the highest revenue, at US$3.9 billion.

On December 13, 2003, Romano was featured as a special guest star, sending a birthday card to Bob Barker in his eightieth-birthday bash on the seventh "Million Dollar Spectacular" special of the long-running daytime CBS series The Price Is Right.

Romano was the subject of the documentary film 95 MILES TO GO. The film documents Romano`s road-trip for a series of gigs across the South. The film was released in theaters on April 7, 2006 by ThinkFilm.[4] In August 2006, Romano was interviewed in front of a live audience at UCLA by fellow stand-up veteran, David Steinberg, for an episode of Sit Down Comedy with David Steinberg. The program first aire

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