Raymond Albert Romano (December 21, 1957, New York City, New York, USA) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He is best known for his role as Raymond "Ray" Barone on the CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond (1996–2005), for which he won three Primetime Emmy Awards (one as an actor and two as producer). He is also known for being the voice of Manny in the Ice Age franchise. He has received several other awards including nominations for two Grammy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.
He created and starred in the TNT comedy drama Men of a Certain Age (2009–2011). From 2012 to 2015, Romano had a recurring role as Hank Rizzoli, a love interest of Sarah Braverman in the NBC series Parenthood. More recently he co-starred in the romantic comedy The Big Sick (2017) and portrayed mob lawyer Bill Bufalino in Martin Scorsese's epic crime film The Irishman (2019). From 2017 to 2019, Romano portrayed Rick Moreweather in the Epix comedy-drama series Get Shorty.
Romano was born in Queens, New York City, the second son of Luciana "Lucie" (née Fortini) (d. 2021), a piano teacher, and Albert Romano (1925–2010), a real estate agent and engineer. He is of Italian descent. He grew up in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens. He has an older brother, Richard (born 1956), an NYPD sergeant, and a younger brother, Robert (born c. 1966), a second grade teacher in New York City.
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. Before getting into show business, Romano briefly attended Queens College, in Flushing, New York, where he studied accounting.
His early comedy career started when he competed in the Johnnie Walker Comedy Search in 1989, directed by Saturday Night Live short film producer Neal Marshad and appeared on The Comedy Channel. His 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 cast to play Joe (originally named Rick) on the American television sitcom NewsRadio, but was fired and replaced with Greg Lee in the pilot and then Joe Rogan for the rest of the show. He then appeared on 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. His work on the series earned him six Primetime Emmy Award nominations as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, a category he won in 2002. He also shared two Emmy Awards as an executive producer when his show won as Outstanding Comedy Series in 2003 and 2005.
| Year | Image | Character | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 
|
Manny | Ice Age |