Drea de Matteo Drea de Matteo Andrea Donna de Matteo (; born January 19, 1972) is an American actress, known for her roles as Angie Bolen on ABC's "Desperate Housewives", Joey Tribbiani's sister Gina on the NBC sitcom "Joey", Wendy Case on FX series "Sons of Anarchy", and Adriana La Cerva on the HBO drama series "The Sopranos", a role for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She played Det. Tess Nazario in NBC's "Shades of Blue". De Matteo, of Italian descent, was born in Whitestone, Queens, New York. Her mother, Donna, is a
The Sopranos had a bigger impact on how stories are told on the small screen, or more influence on what kind of fare we’ve been offered by an ever-growing array of television networks." Hal Boedeker stated in PopMatters in 2007 that the series was "widely influential for revealing that cable would accommodate complex series about dark characters. "The Sopranos" ushered in "Six Feet Under", "The Shield", "Rescue Me", and "Big Love"." The series helped establish HBO as producers of critically acclaimed and commercially successful original television series. Michael Flaherty of "The Hollywood Reporter" has stated that "The Sopranos" "helped launch [HBO's] reputation