Popular for portraying the title character in Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray Romano is one of the American stand-up comedians, actors, and writers you can reckon with. His highly acclaimed role in the 1996-2005 CBS sitcom shot him to fame as well as earned him multiple awards. Ray is also known for his role as Rick Moreweather in the ongoing Epix dramedy TV series, Get Shortly, a role he started playing in 2017. His other projects include Right Here, Around the Corner, his first comedy special since after Everybody Loves Raymond. which started airing on Netflix in February 2019. Read on to learn all you need to know about the successful entertainer, including his life behind the cameras.
Ray Romano’s Bio (Age)
He was born as Raymond Albert Romano on December 21, 1957, in the Queens borough of New York City, New York, United States. He is of Italian origins.
Raymond grew up in the Forest Hills locality in Queens where he attended the Our Lady Queen of Martyrs for his elementary and middle school education. Ray later schooled at the Archbishop Molloy High School before proceeding to the Hillcrest High School where he finally completed his high school education in 1975. During his high school days, Romano performed comedy sketches and improvised stand-ups with his peers.
Romano subsequently enrolled at the Queens College in New York to study Accounting. Meanwhile, it is not clear whether he completed his studies or not before venturing into full-time comedy, debuting his career in the No Talent comedy troupe. In 1989, Ray participated and won in the Johnnie Walker Comedy Search which aired on the Comedy Channel. The exposure subsequently earned him a role on the MTV Half-Hour Comedy Hour film which turned out his first nationwide television appearance. Ray later got a recurring voice role on Comedy Central’s Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist which ran from 1995 to 1997.
Career Breakthrough
Still in 1995, Ray landed his career breakthrough after appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman. Highly impressed by his comedic talents, Letterman created a show based on Romano’s humor titled Everybody Loves Raymond wherein he starred as title character Raymond Barone from 1996 to 2005 on CBS. The nine-year-running sitcom in which Ray mostly drew inspiration from daily home life activities with a wife and growing kids, earned him lifetime popularity. Within the same period, he also portrayed Raymond Barone in several other television shows including Cosby (1997), The King of Queens (1998-2005), The Nanny (1998), and Becker (1999).
After he was done with Everybody Loves Raymond, Romano appeared on numerous other films and TV shows until 2008 when he came up with another show, a dramedy titled, Men of a Certain Age. The show which he co-created with Mike Royce aired on TNT from 2009 to 2011, starring Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula. Ray Romano also provided the voice for Manfred in the Ice Age and its subsequent series in 2009, 2012 and 2016 respectively. He later starred as Andy Freeman in Netflix’s 2019 film, Paddleton.
As a writer, Romano has published three books namely: Everything and a Kite (a memoir, 1999), Everybody Loves Raymond: Our Family Album (2004) and Raymie, Dickie and the Bean (children’s book, 2005). In addition to acting and comedy, Ray Romano is also a celebrity golfer and active poker player. Between 2007 and 2015, he has participated in seven different World Series of Poker tournaments as well as several golf championships.
Ray Romano’s Family – Brother, Wife and Kids
Ray Romano is the second of the three children (all boys), born to his parents, Lucie and Albert Romano. While his mother worked as a piano tutor, his father was an engineer and real estate agent. Being a middle child, he has one older brother and one younger brother.
His older brother named Richard Romano was a New York Police Department (NYPD) sergeant. He worked in the position for twenty years before switching to screenwriting. Richard presently has one feature film titled The Investigator to his credit. He also works as a baseball coach. Ray’s younger brother, Robert Romano was, on the other hand, a second-grade teacher who also worked in New York City.
It’s quite interesting to note that Ray Romano lived with his parents until 1987 when he married at 29. He met his wife, Anna Scarpulla in 1982 while they both worked at the Brooklyn-based Williamsburg Savings Bank, NYC. The couple has four children together – Alexandra a.k.a Ally (a daughter born in 1990), Gregory and Matthew (twin sons born in 1993), and Joseph (a son born in 1998).
Ray and Anna have been married for more than three decades now. In 2010, Anna conquered stage one breast cancer. The happy family resides in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California.
Romano’s family, both biological and marital have been very supportive of his comedy career. Most of them have at one time or the other featured on his shows. Meanwhile, his twin sons are already actors and writers.
Net Worth
Ray Romano has an estimated net worth of $130 million. He amassed a greater part of his wealth from his comedy career. Of all his works so far, Everybody Loves Raymond remains the most grossing project he has engaged in. The show broke records with an all-time highest revenue of $3.9 billion in the mid-2000s. Ray also emerged the all-time highest paid TV actor for his role in the comedy series.
Forbes revealed that Romano reaped an annual income of $16 million in 2013.
Height
Ray Romano is a tall man, with an impressive height of 6 feet 1½ inches (1.87 meters). Ray has a close-to-athletic body build that weighs about 80 kilograms. He has dark brown hair and eyes.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7u7PRZ6WerF%2Bau3DDyKSgaKqRrnqzu8yapahlkp68bsPIn5xmo5mZwG6ywKagpbFdnbKqs8etZKedpGLEsL7ToWSbqp%2Bptaa%2BjJqenmc%3D