Ukrainian-American Actress in Oscar Winning "The Departed"

[Hannia]

Vera Farmiga, the second oldest of seven children, grew up in Irvington, New Jersey . Her parents, Mykola and Luba Farmiga, are Ukrainian immigrants. She was raised in an insular Ukrainian American community, not speaking English until the age of six. She attended a Ukrainian Catholic School in Newark and toured with a Ukrainian Dance Ensemble in 1991. Vera graduated from Hunterdon Central Regional High School.

Although she originally intended to become an optometrist, Vera attended Syracuse University's School of Visual and Performing Arts. She made her Broadway debut in 1996 as an understudy in the play Taking Sides. The same year, she starred as Miranda in the American Conservatory Theater production of The Tempest.


Throughout the late 1990s, she continued appearing in stage, television and film roles, including a part in the 1998 film Return to Paradise.

Vera appeared in several high profile films in the early 2000s, including Autumn in New York and 15 Minutes. She also played opposite Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep in the 2004 Jonathan Demme remake of The Manchurian Candidate. Her lead performance in the 2005 Down to the Bone received a Best Actress Award from the Los Angeles Critics Association. Vera subsequently costarred with Paul Walker in the 2006 action thriller, Running Scared.

In 2006, Vera played police psychiatrist, Madolyn Madden, in Martin Scorsese's The Departed, alongside Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCapria, Mark Wahlberg, Jack Nicholson, and Martin Sheen. A few weeks ago the film was awarded four Academy Awards, including Best Picture.