Christina Ricci ( ; born February 12, 1980) is an American actress. Known for playing unusual characters with a dark edge, Ricci works mostly in independent productions, but has also appeared in numerous box-office hits. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
Ricci made her film debut at the age of nine in Mermaids (1990), which was followed by a breakout role as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family (1991) and its sequel, Addams Family Values (1993). Subsequent appearances in Casper and Now and Then (both 1995) established her as a teen idol. At 17, she moved into adult-oriented roles with The Ice Storm (1997), which led to parts in several independent features, such as Buffalo '66, The Opposite of Sex, Pecker (all 1998), Prozac Nation (2001), Pumpkin (2002), and Monster (2003). She also starred in 200 Cigarettes, Sleepy Hollow (both 1999), Anything Else (2003), Cursed (2005), Penelope (2006), and Speed Racer (2008). In 2021, she had a supporting role in The Matrix Resurrections.
On television, Ricci appeared as Liza Bump in the final season of Ally McBeal (2002), and had a guest role on Grey's Anatomy in 2006, for which received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress. She also starred in the ABC series Pan Am (2011–12), and produced and starred in the series The Lizzie Borden Chronicles (2015) and Z: The Beginning of Everything (2017). In 2021, Ricci began playing Misty Quigley on Showtime's Yellowjackets, for which she received her second Emmy nomination, this time for Outstanding Supporting Actress. In 2022, she appeared as Marilyn Thornhill in the Netflix series Wednesday.
In 2010, Ricci made her Broadway debut in Time Stands Still. She is the national spokesperson for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). She married hairdresser Mark Hampton in 2021 and the couple have two children.
Early life
Christina Ricci was born in Santa Monica, California, the youngest of four children of Sarah (née Murdoch) and Ralph Ricci. Her mother worked as a Ford Agency model during the 1960s and later became a real estate agent. Her father had a varied career, including jobs as a gym teacher, lawyer, drug counsellor, and primal scream therapist. Regarding her surname, Ricci has stated that she has Italian, Irish, English and Scottish ancestry.
Ricci's family moved to Montclair, New Jersey, where she grew up attending Edgemont Elementary School, Glenfield Middle School, Montclair High School, and Morristown–Beard School. She later attended Professional Children's School in New York City. Her three older siblings are Rafael, Dante, and Pia. Ricci's parents separated when she was a preteen. She has been vocal about her childhood in interviews, particularly her parents' divorce and turbulent relationship with her father.
Career
1990–1996: Discovery, Casper, and child stardom
At the age of eight, Ricci was discovered by a local theater critic when she starred in a school production of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Another child was originally cast in the part, but Ricci devised a plan to secure the role for herself: she taunted her rival so much that he punched her. When she told on him, he lost the part. She recalled, "I've always been a really ambitious person. I guess that's the first time it really reared its ugly head". Soon thereafter, she featured in a pair of spoof commercials on Saturday Night Live. The first of these featured Ricci as a child at a birthday party in which medical waste fell out of a burst piñata, parodying the then-topical dumping of waste in the rivers of the United States' east coast. This gained Ricci her SAG-AFTRA card.
Ricci's big-screen debut was in 1990's Mermaids, where she co-starred as Kate Flax, the little sister of Winona Ryder's Charlotte and youngest daughter of Cher's Rachel. She also appeared—alongside her co-stars—in the music video for "The Shoop Shoop Song", which featured on the film's soundtrack. The following year, Ricci appeared as the morbidly precocious Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family, Barry Sonnenfeld's big-budget adaptation of the cartoon of the same name. She reprised the role for the 1993 sequel, Addams Family Values. Both films were financially profitable, grossing over US$300 million between them. Critics singled out Ricci's performance as a particular highlight of Values, with Variety believing she brought "a depth to her character well beyond her years".