Bobby Cannavale

Biography:

Bobby Cannavale was born on May 3, 1970, in Union City, New Jersey, to Isabel and Salvatore “Sal” Cannavale. His father is of Italian descent, while his mother, originally from Cuba, immigrated to the United States in 1960. Raised in a Catholic household, he attended St. Michael’s Catholic School, where he actively participated in extracurricular activities, including serving as an altar boy and singing in the school chorus.

At the age of eight, Cannavale discovered his passion for acting after playing the role of Winthrop, a lisping boy, in his school’s production of The Music Man. His enthusiasm for performing grew when he later portrayed a gangster in Guys and Dolls. When he was thirteen, his parents divorced, and his mother relocated the family to Puerto Rico. After two years there, they settled in Margate, Florida. From 1983 to 1986, Cannavale attended Coconut Creek High School but was expelled during his senior year for misbehavior. Determined to pursue acting, he moved back to New Jersey to live with his grandmother and completed his high school diploma at Union Hill High School through summer classes so he could be closer to New York City to begin his acting career.

Cannavale began acting in theater without formal training and soon earned early film roles in Night Falls on Manhattan (1997) and The Bone Collector (1999). His breakthrough came with his portrayal of Bobby Caffey on Third Watch, which he starred in for two seasons. In 2001, he appeared alongside Alan Arkin in 100 Centre Street, a series written and directed by his then father-in-law, Sidney Lumet.

He joined the cast of Ally McBeal in its final five episodes in 2002 and later starred with Yancey Arias and Sheryl Lee in the miniseries Kingpin. Cannavale also made appearances in Oz (2003) and earned praise for his performance in The Station Agent, playing a man who befriends a socially withdrawn character. Between 2004 and 2006, he played Vince D’Angelo, the romantic partner and eventual husband of Will Truman, on Will & Grace — a role that earned him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2005. His other film credits from this period include The Guru (2002), Shall We Dance? (2004), Romance & Cigarettes (2005), Snakes on a Plane (2006), and The Take (2007). He also made guest appearances on Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, Law & Order, and its spin-offs.

Cannavale provided the voice of Corado R. Ciarlo, nicknamed “Babe,” in Ken Burns’ PBS documentary The War and narrated the audiobook versions of Richard Price’s Lush Life (2008) and Ed Falco’s The Family Corleone (2012). He starred in the 2009 ABC series Cupid, a remake of the 1998 show, opposite Sarah Paulson, though it was canceled after less than two months.

His theater career flourished as well; he received a Tony Award nomination in 2008 for his performance in Mauritius and another in 2011 for his lead role in The Motherf**ker with the Hat, which also starred Chris Rock and Annabella Sciorra. On screen, he appeared in The Other Guys (2010) and Win Win (2011), continuing to balance both film and stage work.

From 2012 to 2013, Cannavale guest-starred in Nurse Jackie, earning two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. Around the same time, he joined HBO’s Boardwalk Empire as the ruthless gangster Gyp Rosetti, a performance that won him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2013. He also guest-starred in Modern Family as Lewis, a vengeful clown, which earned him a Critics’ Choice nomination. Critics widely praised his performances that year, with TV Guide calling his body of work a “trifecta of great performances.” In 2015, he delivered what critic Matt Zoller Seitz described as a “heroically moving” performance in Danny Collins.

Since 2015, Cannavale has contributed voice work to Playing On Air, a nonprofit project featuring short plays for radio and podcast audiences. He has performed in several plays, including Crazy Eights by David Lindsay-Abaire, Mere Mortals by David Ives, and 2 Dads by David Auburn.

In January 2020, he appeared alongside his partner Rose Byrne in Medea, written and directed by Simon Stone. He went on to portray Tony Hogburn in Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers (2021) and Dean Braddock in Netflix’s The Watcher (2022).

Cannavale was married to actress and screenwriter Jenny Lumet from 1994 to 2003. She is the daughter of director Sidney Lumet and granddaughter of performer Lena Horne. They share a son, Jake Cannavale, who is also an actor. Father and son later appeared together in Nurse Jackie. Cannavale was in a relationship with actress Annabella Sciorra from 2004 to 2007. Since 2012, he has been in a relationship with Australian actress Rose Byrne, with whom he has two sons, born in 2016 and 2017.