Bio
Jamie-Lynn Sigler is an American actress best known for her starring role as Meadow Soprano on the television drama series The Sopranos, from 1999-2007.
Sigler was born in Queens, New York to a Jewish American father Steve (whose mother and father came from Greece's Sephardic Jewish community and Romania's Ashkenazi Jewish community, respectively); and a Cuban mother, Connie.
Connie converted to Judaism. Sigler is fluent in Spanish, having learned it from her maternal Cuban grandmother, who did not speak English.
Sigler began acting and singing at the age of seven. In 1997 she was cast as the smart but troubled Meadow Soprano, daughter of New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano.
The show became a success and Sigler rose to some fame as a TV actress. During the early production of The Sopranos, Sigler struggled with an eating disorder and is now a spokesperson for the National Eating Disorders Association.
In 2000, 19 year old Jamie was filming Campfire Stories in Hamburg, New Jersey, she was paralyzed from the waist down for several days having contracted Lyme disease.
In 2001, she released a pop album called Here to Heaven, which featured the single "Cry Baby". The album was a commercial failure and had low sales. In 2007 Sigler said she was "embarrassed" by the album and regrets releasing it.
Sigler then spent five months on Broadway from October 2002 to February 2003 playing Belle in the production Beauty and the Beast. She has continued to appear in theatrical roles, such as Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella.
In 2002, she co-authored an autobiography, Wise Girl: What I've Learned About Life, Love, and Loss.
In July 2003 she married her agent A.J. DiScala. She changed her name to Jamie-Lynn DiScala, publicly stating she is a very traditional girl, and never had any doubt that she would take her husband's name after marrying, even professionally.
However, in September 2005, Sigler and DiScala announced that they were separating after only two years of marriage, and she subsequently changed her name back.
In 2004, she starred as "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss in the USA television movie Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss. In that same year, she had her first starring feature film role, Extreme Dating, an independent film.
In 2005 Jamie starred in Lovewrecked, and in Mariah Carey's "Through the Rain" music video. She also made a guest appearance on the children's show Higglytown Heroes.
In 2006 she acted in two feature films, Blinders and Dark Ride. She is scheduled to appear in two more films in 2007: Homie Spumoni and New York City Serenade.