CELEBRITY BIRTHDAY SPOTLIGHT

Ray Ramano
Born: December 21, 1957
Place: Queens, NY

Romano attended elementary and middle school at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Forest Hills. After transferring from Archbishop Molloy High School, Romano graduated from Hillcrest High School in 1975. He was in the same high school class as Fran Drescher and later appeared on her sitcom The Nanny as an old classmate.

Before breaking into show business, Romano briefly attended Queens College in Flushing, New York where he had majored in accounting. Romano quit going to Queens College after gaining only fifteen credits in three years. However, he would later return, making it to the Dean's List for three years while studying accounting.

His early comedy career included many outlets such as Comedy Central, where he had been a recurring guest voice on the show Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. He also was a contestant on Star Search in the stand-up comedy category. Shortly thereafter, he became the star of his own show, Everybody Loves Raymond, that featured a cast and format more suitable to Romano's brand of humor.

In 2001, Romano was named one of E!'s top twenty entertainers of the year. In the same year, he was featured with his brother (a teacher at a school in Long Island) on a New York Police Department recruiting poster. In 2004, he became the highest paid television actor in history for his role of Raymond on CBS’s Everybody Loves Raymond. It was later revealed on E! that he had broken another record by his show having the highest revenue, at $3.9 billion.

Romano married his wife Anna Scarpulla, in 1987. They met while working at a bank. He had asked out two other co-workers before Anna agreed to go on a date with him. Together, they have four children: one daughter Alexandra, and three sons: twins Matthew and Gregory and Joseph Raymond.