Raymond Albert Romano (born December 21, 1957) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He is best known for his role as Raymond "Ray" Barone on the CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond (1996–2005), for which he won three Primetime Emmy Awards (one as an actor and two as producer). He is also known for being the voice of Manny in the Ice Age franchise. He has received several other awards including nominations for two Grammy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.
He created and starred in the TNT comedy drama Men of a Certain Age (2009–2011). From 2012 to 2015, Romano had a recurring role as Hank Rizzoli, a love interest of Sarah Braverman in the NBC series Parenthood. More recently he co-starred in the romantic comedy The Big Sick (2017) and portrayed mob lawyer Bill Bufalino in Martin Scorsese's epic crime film The Irishman (2019). From 2017 to 2019, Romano portrayed Rick Moreweather in the Epix comedy-drama series Get Shorty.
Romano was born in the Queens borough of New York City, the second son of Luciana "Lucie" (née Fortini) (d. 2021), a piano teacher, and Albert Romano (1925–2010), a real estate agent and engineer. He is of Italian descent. He grew up in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens. He has an older brother, Richard (born 1956), an NYPD sergeant, and a younger brother, Robert (born c. 1966), a second grade teacher in New York City.
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. Before getting into show business, Romano briefly attended Queens College, in Flushing, New York, where he studied accounting.
His early comedy career started when he competed in the Johnnie Walker Comedy Search in 1989, directed by Saturday Night Live short film producer Neal Marshad and appeared on The Comedy Channel. His 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. He was cast to play Joe (originally named Rick) on the American television sitcom NewsRadio, but was fired and replaced with Greg Lee in the pilot and then Joe Rogan for the rest of the show. He then appeared on Late Show with David Letterman doing his stand up routine which formed his ties with CBS. Shortly thereafter, he became the star of his own show, Everybody Loves Raymond on CBS, that featured a cast and format more suitable to Romano's brand of humor. His work on the series earned him six Primetime Emmy Award nominations as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, a category he won in 2002. He also shared two Emmy Awards as an executive producer when his show won as Outstanding Comedy Series in 2003 and 2005.
Romano performed the opening monologue at the 1998 White House Correspondents' Association dinner.
Romano and his comedian friend Kevin James starred in the salesman comedy Grilled as two average Joes of the same profession who are both desperate to land a big sale.
Romano was featured on a 2000 episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, on which he won $125,000 for the NYPD's D.A.R.E. unit. The following year, he and one of his brothers appeared on a New York Police Department recruiting poster.
In 2004, Romano became the highest-paid television actor in history for his role of Raymond on CBS's Everybody Loves Raymond. The show broke another record by having the highest revenue, at $3.9 billion.
On December 13, 2003, Romano was a guest star, sending a birthday card to Bob Barker for Barker's 80th birthday on the 27th "Million Dollar Spectacular" special of the CBS game show The Price Is Right.
Romano was the subject of the documentary film 95 Miles to Go. The film documents Romano's road trip across the south of the United States. The film was released in theaters on April 7, 2010, by ThinkFilm. In August 2006 Romano was interviewed in front of a live audience at UCLA by fellow stand-up veteran David Steinberg, for an episode of Sit Down Comedy with David Steinberg. The program first aired on the TV Land network in March 2007.
Romano returned to television with a new dramedy for TNT in 2008, Men of a Certain Age, which he co-created with former Everybody Loves Raymond writer Mike Royce. It co-starred Scott Bakula and Andre Braugher.
Romano made an appearance in the seventh season of NBC series The Office as Merv Bronte, a nervous job applicant interviewing for the job left vacant by Michael Scott.
Romano made an appearance in the third-season premiere of the ABC sitcom The Middle as Nicky, a friend of Mike, who ruined his and Frankie's honeymoon. Romano was the second actor from Everybody Loves Raymond to be reunited with Patricia Heaton on The Middle; Doris Roberts guest starred in three episodes.
He joined the cast of Parenthood beginning with its fourth season premiere. He became a semi regular, playing photographer Hank Rizzoli, who hired and later had a romantic relationship with Sarah Braverman and developed a friendship with her nephew who has Asperger syndrome. The role was specifically created for him after he expressed his love for the series and met with creator Jason Katims on the set of Friday Night Lights.
In 2002, Romano voiced the woolly mammoth Manny in the animated Blue Sky Studios film Ice Age. He has since reprised the role in four sequels: Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009), Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012), and Ice Age: Collision Course (2016), along with two TV specials, and is set to return for the sixth film in 2026.
From 2017 to 2019, Romano played a leading role in three seasons of the MGM+ television show Get Shorty, created by Davey Holmes and co-starring Chris O'Dowd.
In 2019, Romano starred in the Netflix comedy film Paddleton and portrayed mob lawyer Bill Bufalino in Martin Scorsese's The Irishman.