Robin Tunney Movies and Career Information

Robin Tunney (born June 19, 1972) is an American actress. She is best known for her lead roles in the movie The Craft and the television series The Mentalist. Tunney, who is the cousin of Chicago Alderman Tom Tunney, was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a car salesman father and a bartender mother. Tunney is Irish American; her father Pat emigrated from Ireland and grew up on the South Side of Chicago in Orland Park. She was raised Roman Catholic and she attended Catholic high school. She then went on to study Art at the Chicago Academy for the Arts. At the age of 19, Tunney moved to Los Angeles, California and obtained several recurring TV roles on Class of '96, Law & Order, Dream On, and Life Goes On. She gave her breakthrough performance as a suicidal teenager in Empire Records, and attracted further attention by playing a witch in The Craft. She shaved her head for Empire Records and had to wear a wig in The Craft. In 1997, Tunney starred in Bob Gosse's Niagara, Niagara with Henry Thomas in a performance which garnered her the Best Actress award Volpi Cup at the 1997 Venice International Film Festival. Tunney also was featured opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1999 action film