Carla Gugino (born August 29, 1971) is an American actress known for her roles of Sally Jupiter in Watchmen, Ingrid Cortez in the Spy Kids film trilogy, and as the lead characters of the television series Karen Sisco and Threshold.
Gugino was born in Sarasota, Florida, of Italian, English, and Irish ancestry.
Her parents separated when she was two. Her father, Carl Gugino, is an orthodontist.
Her mother moved the family to Paradise, California, when she was four years old. Despite moving around California a great deal as a child, Carla Gugino remained a straight-A student and graduated valedictorian.
At the age of 15 she was spotted by a modeling agency in San Diego and moved to New York.
This was unusual as at only 5 feet 4 inches (1.65 m) tall, she was considered too short for catwalk work.
Finding the experience too much, Gugino moved back to California that summer. Partly at the suggestion of her aunt, game show model Carol Merrill, she subsequently studied acting.
Gugino has starred in many films including art-house film Lovelife along with Saffron Burrows and Sherilyn Fenn, Snake Eyes with Nicolas Cage (1998), Judas Kiss (which she also co-produced, 1998), the three Spy Kids films, Son in Law, The One with Jet Li, and Sin City.
Her most recent roles came in box office hits such as Night at the Museum (2006) and American Gangster (2007).
She played Ashley Schaeffer in the first season of the Michael J. Fox television series Spin City. She also starred in the short lived CBS science fiction series Threshold and in ABC's Karen Sisco, in which she recreated the law-enforcement role of Jennifer Lopez from the film Out of Sight.
Gugino appeared in Roundabout Theatre Company's After the Fall opposite Six Feet Under's Peter Krause. In late 2006, she will begin the Off-Broadway play by Tennessee Williams, Suddenly Last Summer opposite actress Blythe Danner.
Gugino has also appeared in a wide range of TV programs including ALF, Doogie Howser, M.D., Saved by the Bell, Who's the Boss? and The Wonder Years, and is featured in the video to Bon Jovi's 1994 song "Always" and also on the last season of Chicago Hope as brain surgeon Dr. Gina Simon. Gugino also frequently appears in films written and directed by her longtime boyfriend Sebastian Gutierrez, as they've worked together on several films in the past.
