Debi Mazar Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Debi Mazar
OCCUPATION: Film Actress, Television Actress
BIRTH DATE: August 13, 1964 (Age: 48)
PLACE OF BIRTH: New York, New York
ZODIAC SIGN: Leo

Best Known For

Debi Mazar is an actress known for roles in films such as Goodfellas and The Doors and the TV series Entourage.

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Debi Mazar

APA Style

Debi Mazar. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 05:06, May 20, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/debi-mazar-23032.

Harvard Style

Debi Mazar. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/debi-mazar-23032 [Accessed 20 May 2013].

MLA Style

"Debi Mazar." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 20 2013, 05:06 http://www.biography.com/people/debi-mazar-23032.

MHRA Style

"Debi Mazar," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/debi-mazar-23032 [accessed May 20, 2013].

Chicago Style

"Debi Mazar," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/debi-mazar-23032 (accessed May 20, 2013).

CBE/CSE Style

Debi Mazar [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 20] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/debi-mazar-23032.

Bluebook Style

Debi Mazar, http://www.biography.com/people/debi-mazar-23032 (last visited May 20, 2013).

AMA Style

Debi Mazar. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/debi-mazar-23032. Accessed May 20, 2013.

Synopsis

In the 1980s, Debi Mazar found herself employed as Madonna's makeup artist, making appearances in late-80s music videos for Madonna songs such as ‘Justify My Love.’ Then, with no acting experience, she landed a role in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, instantly becoming typecast as a New York tough girl. In 2004, she landed a role on HBO’s Entourage and became known to millions more viewers.

Quotes

'Being typecast is a great thing for an actor: you work. I was considered one of the New York actors...one of the New York mob actors. But I did get tired of the way people would think of me. My heart was deeper.'

– Debi Mazar

Early Life

Actress. Debi Mazar was born on August 13, 1964, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Her father, Harry Mazar, was a blue-collar Latvian Jewish immigrant who fled the former Soviet Union to start a new life in New York City. Her mother, Nancy, was an American-born Catholic who converted to Judaism upon marrying her father. As a child, Debi Mazar was exposed to a remarkable diversity of faiths as her parents struggled to find spiritual satisfaction from different religions. According to Mazar, her mother "was born Catholic, converted to Judaism, then she became a Buddhist, then she became a Jehovah's Witness. Then she was kicked out of Jehovah's Witness for taking a blood transfusion." Her father's religious past was equally complex; born Jewish, he had spent World War II passing as a Catholic to escape Nazi anti-Semitism. "It was a big secret which I didn't find out until I was in my 20s," Debi Mazar says. She also says that this early exposure to a myriad of religious influences later prevented her from latching onto any of the spiritual trends that periodically sweep Hollywood. "I could never be pushed into something," she says. "It's just not my thing. But I think if people find happiness in it, then good for them!"

When Mazar recalls her childhood in the multicultural immigrant havens of Brooklyn and Queens, what she remembers most vividly are the smells. "Every day I smelled garlic, sofrito and rice, pork and beans and God knows what else floating through the windows," she says. Perhaps reflecting her working-class background, as a child she dreamed mostly about growing up to stability and comfort. "I always had dreams," she said. "I knew I wanted to have money to buy things at the flea market. That's worked out well."

Finding Her Niche

Instead of attending college, Mazar moved out of her house at the age of 18, taking with her little more than a taste for excitement and a vague notion of making it in the world of show business. At first, she took any employment she could find, working as a sales clerk, nightclub bouncer and even dental assistant—a job for which she had no training. "I've had a huge variety of jobs," Mazar says. "I had a friend who was a dentist who wouldn't hire me but gave me, like, all the dialogue I needed and I basically auditioned for [another] dentist ... On my first day on the job, he said, 'Hand me the ... ' whatever it was, and I said, 'The picker'? He realized I didn't know what I was talking about." At the same time, she became a fixture of the 1980s New York club scene and befriended an up-and-coming pop star named Madonna.