| Leah Remini | |
|---|---|
| |
| Celebrity Profile | |
| Birth Date | 15 June 1970 |
| Hometown | Brooklyn, New York |
| Known For | Actress |
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| |
| Partner(s) | Tony Dovolani |
| Placement | 5 |
| Highest Score | 27 (Quickstep, Team Freestyle, Tango & Jive) |
| Lowest Score | 21 (Foxtrot) |
| Average Score | 24.8 |
Leah Marie Remini is a celebrity from Season 17 of Dancing with the Stars.
She also temporarily co-hosted in Season 19 and Season 21, and was a guest judge in Season 28.
Early Life[]
Leah Remini was born in New York City, in Brooklyn, to Vicki Marshall, a schoolteacher, and George Remini, who owned an asbestos removal company. Her mother is of Austrian Jewish background and her father of Italian (Sicilian) descent. Remini has an older sister, Nicole Remini (born 1969), and four half-sisters. Remini was baptized as a Catholic as an infant, but at age nine, after her mother, Vicki Marshall, joined the Church of Scientology, Remini was raised a Scientologist. Remini moved to Los Angeles at the age of thirteen with her mother. Later, she would pursue an acting career.
Television Career[]
One of Remini's early television roles was on Who's the Boss? as Charlie Briscoe, which led to a spin-off series entitled Living Dolls, where Remini starred with Halle Berry. The show premiered in late 1989 and ran for twelve episodes before being cancelled.
Remini appeared on Saved by the Bell playing Stacey Carosi. She then appeared in two series, First Time Out and Fired Up. In 1993, she appeared on Cheers as the daughter of Carla and Nick Tortelli. In 1994, Remini auditioned for the role of Monica Geller on Friends, but the role went to Courteney Cox; however, Remini did appear in the 1995 Friends episode "The One with the Birth" in which she played a pregnant woman. In 1998, Remini landed the role of Carrie Heffernan on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens. The series would be very successful, running for nine seasons.
During her time on the show, she had a supporting role in the comedy film Old School (2003). Remini also starred in her own reality show, which aired on VH1. The King of Queens ran for nine seasons, from 21 September 1998 to 14 May 2007. Since The King of Queens ended, Remini has starred in nine-episode webisodes of In the Motherhood, along with Chelsea Handler and Jenny McCarthy. She has made two guest appearances on Chelsea Lately. On 15 December 2009, Remini appeared as Carrie Heffernan on Lopez Tonight, with George Lopez as Doug Heffernan in an episode reuniting the cast of the George Lopez sitcom. Remini and Holly Robinson Peete appeared on The Young and the Restless 28 July 2011.
In October 2011, it was announced that Remini signed a talent development deal at ABC and ABC Studios that requires the network and the studio to develop a comedy project for Remini to star in and produce. In March 2012, it was announced that Remini would star in an ABC comedy Family Tools, a remake of the UK comedy series White Van Man. The series premiered 1 May 2013, and was not renewed owing to low ratings, ending its run 10 July 2013.
It was announced 22 November 2013 that Remini joined the cast of the TV Land comedy The Exes, filling a recurring role starting in the third season.
Remini and her husband Angelo star in a reality television series titled Leah Remini: It's All Relative. The show focuses on Remini's family life. It premiered 10 July 2014 on TLC. According to Remini, the purpose of the show is to highlight the fact that she's a normal person just like everyone else and that celebrity doesn't change that.
Personal Life[]
Remini met her husband in 1996 at a Cuban restaurant. He has three sons from previous relationships. In January 2003, Remini announced their engagement; they were married 19 July 2003. She gave birth to their daughter Sofia in 2004.
Religious Beliefs[]
Since age nine, Remini was a member of the Church of Scientology. In December 2005, she helped promote the gala opening of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights Psychiatry: An Industry of Death museum on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Responding to criticism of Scientology during an interview on CNN, Remini said:
- "If somebody is going to get turned off about something because of what they read or heard, then that person's not smart enough to even enter a church. If you're really against something, then know what you're against."
In July 2013, Remini left the Church of Scientology owing to policies that forbid members from questioning the management of church leader David Miscavige, which she believed was corrupt; the reported abuse of members of its Sea Org religious order; its policy of "disconnection"; and its practice of branding those who have left the church of their own accord as "Suppressive Persons." According to former high-ranking Sea Org member Mike Rinder, Remini's problems with the Church began when she asked about the whereabouts of Miscavige's wife Shelly at the 2006 wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, and was told profanely that she lacked the rank to do so. Remini then filed a "knowledge report" that was critical of Miscavige, Cruise, and other senior Scientology members and behavior on the part of members that was inconsistent with Church rules. She was subsequently "subjected to years of 'interrogations' and 'thought modification'" that led to her being blacklisted within the Church, while fellow parishioners with whom she had been friends for decades wrote internal reports about her, resulting in a Church investigation into her family. During a 9 September 2013, appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Remini discussed her departure from the Church and the loss of friends who are still in the Church and, according to Remini, are not permitted to have contact with her.
Following her departure from the Church, she publicly expressed her appreciation for those who supported her departure. Remini's sister, Nicole, who had earlier left the Church herself, revealed that the rest of their family left the Church along with her to avoid being split up by the Church's disconnection policy.
Writer/director Paul Haggis, who had previously been the most famous person to publicly disavow Scientology, wrote an open letter, published by The Hollywood Reporter, thanking Remini for standing by him after he left the Church and praised her "enormous amount of integrity and compassion." She is reportedly planning to publish a memoir about her life and experiences with Scientology.
In August 2013, it was disclosed that Remini had filed a missing-person report with the Los Angeles Police Department concerning the disappearance of Shelly Miscavige. After the report was filed, the Los Angeles Police Department looked into the matter, met with Shelly Miscavige in person and closed the missing-person investigation and said Remini's report was "unfounded". The Church said in a statement that the whole affair was simply harassment and a publicity stunt for the actress.
In October 2013 it was reported that Remini had been subpoenaed to testify in a Comal County, Texas, lawsuit against the Church of Scientology and its leader David Miscavige regarding acts of alleged harassment and surveillance against the wife of a former member, Monique Rathbun (who was married to ex-Scientology executive Marty Rathbun). Rathbun's attorney, Ray Jeffery, says he wants Remini, a former Scientologist, to give a deposition in the hopes she could testify that Miscavige has vast influence over the operations of the church and had to have known about the alleged harassment.
Remini and her husband are practicing Catholics, and had their ten-year-old daughter Sofia baptized in September 2015.
Dancing with the Stars 17[]
It was announced publicly 4 September 2013 on Good Morning America that Remini would compete as a contestant in Season 17 of Dancing with the Stars, in which she was partnered with professional dancer Tony Dovolani. The couple made it to the tenth week of competition and reached 5th place.
Scores[]
| Week # | Dance/Song | Judges' score | Result | ||
| Inaba | Goodman | Tonioli | |||
| 1 | Foxtrot / "Tears Dry on Their Own" | 7 | 7 | 7 | No elimination |
| 2 | Samba / "María" | 8 | 8 | 8 | Safe |
| 3 | Rumba / "Skyfall" | 8 | 8 | 8 | Safe |
| 4 | Cha-Cha-Cha / "Papi" | 8 | 81 | 8 | Safe |
| 5 | Contemporary / "Roar" | 7 | 7 | 8 | Last to be called safe |
| 6 | Quickstep / "Man Wanted" Switch-Up Challenge / Various |
9 Awarded |
9 one |
9 Point |
No elimination |
| 7 | Salsa / "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)" Team Freestyle / "Bom Bom" |
9 9 |
8 9 |
9 9 |
Safe |
| 8 | Viennese Waltz / "I Got You Babe" Rumba Dance Off / "I Found Someone" |
8 Awarded |
92 three |
8 points |
Safe |
| 9 | Tango / "Love Me Again" Jive (Trio Challenge) / "We're Not Gonna Take It" |
9 9 |
9 9 |
9 9 |
Safe |
| 10 | Paso Doble / "Bad Romance" Argentine Tango / "Bad Romance" (acoustic version) |
8 8 |
8 8 |
83/8 83/9 |
Eliminated |
1 Score was given by guest judge Julianne Hough. 2 Score was given by guest judge Cher. 3 Score was given by guest judge Maksim Chmerkovskiy.
Dancing with the Stars 19[]
Remini temporarily filled in for Erin Andrews as co-host in Week 6.
Dancing with the Stars 21[]
Remini temporarily filled in for Erin Andrews as co-host in Weeks 6 and 7.
Dancing with the Stars 28[]
Remini returned as a guest judge for ABC's "Cast from the Past" promotion in Week 4.[1]
