Edie Falco

Falco was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn on July 5, 1963, the daughter of Judith Anderson, an actress, and Frank Falco, a jazz drummer who later worked for an advertising agency. Her father was of Italian descent and her mother had Swedish, English and Cornish (1/16th) ancestry. She has two brothers, Joseph and Paul, and a sister, Ruth. Her uncle is novelist, playwright, and poet Edward Falco. In 2012, Falco was the subject of an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? which focused on one of her ancestors, a Cornish master mariner from Penzance who was born at sea and died in 1840.

From the age of four, Falco was raised on Long Island, moving with her family to Hicksville, then North Babylon, and finally West Islip. As a child, she acted in plays at the Arena Players Repertory Theater in East Farmingdale, where her mother also performed. Her family eventually moved to Northport, where she attended high school and played Eliza Doolittle in a production of My Fair Lady during her senior year. Falco graduated from Northport High School in 1981. She attended the acting program at State University of New York at Purchase, and graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting.