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 pilot episode which was shot in 1997. Chase directed it himself. They finished the pilot and showed it to HBO executives, but the show was put on hold for several months. During this time, Chase considered asking HBO for additional funding to shoot 45 more minutes of footage and release "The Sopranos" as a feature film. In December 1997, HBO decided to produce the series and ordered 12 more episodes for a 13-episode season. The show premiered on HBO on January 10, 1999 with the pilot episode. "The Sopranos" was the second hour-long television drama series produced by HBO, the