Edie Falco is a three-time Emmy award-winning American television, film and stage actress, known for her lead role as Carmela Soprano on HBO's award winning hit series The Sopranos.

Falco was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Judith Anderson, an actress, and Frank Falco, a jazz drummer. Her father is Italian American and her mother Swedish American. She was raised in Northport and West Islip, on Long Island. She has an adopted son named Anderson and an adopted daughter named Macy.

Edie Falco graduated from Northport High School in 1981, after playing Eliza Doolittle in a production of My Fair Lady. She attended SUNY Purchase with fellow actors Stanley Tucciand Ving Rhames; she remains friends with both.

Her first big break in films was a small speaking role in the 1994 Woody Allen film Bullets Over Broadway. One reason she got the part was her friendship with former SUNY Purchase classmate Eric Mendelsohn, who at the time was assistant to Allen's costume designer, Jeffrey Kurland. Mendelsohn would go on to direct Falco in his feature film Judy Berlin, for which he won "Best Director" honors at the Sundance Film Festival.

Falco, The X-Files star Gillian Anderson Ugly Betty star America Ferrera and 30 Rock's Tina Feyare the only actresses to have received a Golden Globe, an Emmy and a SAG Award in the same year. Falco won these awards in 2003 for her performance as Carmela during the fourth season of The Sopranos. Prior to that, she was a regular performer on Oz. She also had recurring roles on Law & Order and Homicide: Life on the Street.

Falco has won three Emmys, two Golden Globes and five Screen Actors Guild Awards.

She appeared in the films Trust, Cop Land, Random Hearts, Freedomland, and John Sayles' Sunshine State, for which she received the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for "Best Supporting Actress". On Broadway, she appeared in the Tony Award-winning Side Man and in the revivals of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune opposite Stanley Tucci and Night, Mother opposite Brenda Blethyn. NBC announced on September 7, 2007 that Falco would be guest starring on three episodes of 30 Rock. She has also appeared as a guest star on Will & Grace.