Ray Romano

RAY ROMANO, a s Ray Barone on the CBS hit series,”Everybody Loves Raymond,” was the star of one of the most respected sitcoms in television history and won numerous awards, including an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2002. He also received two additional Emmys in 2003 and 2005 for Outstanding Comedy Series as one of the show’s executive producers,and shared a 2003 Screen Actors Guild AwardTM for Outstanding Ensemble in a Comedy Series with the rest of the cast.

He also won People’s Choice Awards in 2000, 2001 and 2003 as Favorite Male TV Performer. In 2006, Ray earned his fourth People’s Choice Award when the show was named Favorite Television Comedy.

Ray admits that while he always knew he could make his friends laugh, he never gave stand-up comedy any serious thought until one fateful open mic night at a New York comedy club in 1984. Positive response from the audience spurred him to pursue stand-up full time. He performed regularly at comedy clubs across the country, which led to appearances on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” and later with Jay Leno, as well as “Late Night with David Letterman.” Letterman recognized something unique in Ray’s persona and offered him a development deal with his production company, Worldwide Pants. That association led to “Everybody Loves Raymond.”

Ray made his big screen debut in 2002 as the voice of Manny the wooly mammoth in the 20th Century Fox hit “Ice Age,” and reprised the role in the wildly successful sequels “Ice Age: The Meltdown” and “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.” Other films include “Eulogy,” “Welcome To Mooseport” (with Gene Hackman), “Grilled” (with Kevin James and Burt Reynolds) and “The Last Word” (with Winona Ryder and Wes Bentley). In 2006, he was the subject of “95 Miles to Go,” a documentary of his life on tour.

He is the author of the New York Times best-selling book Everything and a Kite, which was inspired by his comedy. With his brothers Bobby and Rich Romano, Ray wrote the children’s book “Raymie, Dickie, and The Bean: Why I Love and Hate My Brothers,” which was nominated for a Grammy® in 2006 for Best Spoken Word album. His comedy album “Live at Carnegie Hall” was nominated for a Grammy in 2002.

In 2009, Ray teamed with Mike Royce, a fellow stand-up from New York and writer for “Everybody Loves Raymond,” to create and star in the one-hour series “Men of a Certain Age” for TNT. The series, which also starred Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula, ran for two seasons and won the Peabody Award in 2011.

© 2012 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios