Maria Bello Movies and Career Information

Maria Elena Bello (born April 18, 1967) is an American actress best known for her appearances in the movies Coyote Ugly, The Jane Austen Book Club, Thank You for Smoking, A History of Violence, and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. For television she is best known for her role as Dr. Anna Del Amico on the NBC medical drama ER. Bello was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Kathy, a teacher and school nurse, and Joe Bello, a contractor. Her father is Italian American and her mother Polish American. She grew up in a working-class Roman Catholic family and graduated from Archbishop Carroll High School (Radnor, Pennsylvania). Later she attended Villanova University, majoring in political science. She intended to become a lawyer, but took an acting class during her senior year, just for fun. She was soon cast in small off-Broadway plays, such as The Killer Inside Me, Small Town Gals With Big Problems and Urban Planning. She later guest-starred on episodes of The Commish (1991), Nowhere Man (1995), Misery Loves Company (1995) Due South (1994), and ER (1997–98). Bello's breakthrough came when the producers Kerry Lenhart and John J. Sakmar cast her as Mrs. Smith in the