Gina Ferranti is an American actress and producer best known for her role as Cheryl Yale in the 2007

Charles Messina Charles Messina (born October 21, 1971 in Greenwich Village, New York) is an American playwright, screenwriter, director, and co-founder of NahNotOutsideMyHouse! Productions. He is of Italian-American descent. He attended Xavier High School an ...

play

Merging Merge, merging, or merger may refer to: Concepts * Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road * Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program * Merger (politics), the com ...

Background

Ferranti is an

Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...

and a native of Staten Island. She is an alumna of the

State University of New York at Albany The State University of New York at Albany, commonly referred to as the University at Albany, UAlbany or SUNY Albany, is a public research university with campuses in Albany, Rensselaer, and Guilderland, New York. Founded in 1844, it is one ...

. She is also a graduate of the

Neighborhood Playhouse A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural ar ...

Career highlights

Ferranti originated the role of Cheryl Yale in the debut stage production of Merging, alongside

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster, portraying his difficulties as he tries to balance ...

alumnus

Jason Cerbone Jason Cerbone (born November 2, 1977) is an American actor. He played Jackie Aprile Jr. on the HBO series ''The Sopranos'', Lorenzo Desappio in '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' (2012-2016), and Mikey O in '' Paper Soldiers'' (2002). Earl ...

, and Ernest Mingione. The play was directed by Messina and won Best Play at the Players Theatre's Shortened Attention Span Horror Festival in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. In 2009, Ferranti reprised her role in the film version, again alongside Cerbone and Mingione. + The play was directed by Messina and won Best Play at the Players Theatre's Shortened Attention Span Horror Festival in

. In 2009, Ferranti reprised her role in the film version, again alongside Cerbone and Mingione. On September 20, 2010, Ferranti starred with Johnny Tammaro,

Ralph Macchio Ralph George Macchio Jr. ( ; born November 4, 1961) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Daniel LaRusso in three ''Karate Kid'' films and in ''Cobra Kai'', a sequel television series. He also played Johnny Cade in '' The Outsiders' ...

Mario Cantone Mario Cantone (born December 9, 1959) is an American comedian, writer, actor, and singer with numerous appearances on Comedy Central including ''Chappelle's Show''. He also played Anthony Marentino in ''Sex and the City'' and Terri in ''Men In T ...

, and

Lynne Koplitz Lynne Koplitz is an American stand-up comedian and actress. Koplitz was host of Telepictures' nationally syndicated dating show '' Change of Heart'', guest host on NBC's '' Later'', co-host of the Food Network's ''How to Boil Water'', and co-hos ...

in a staged reading of the Messina scripted and directed play ''A Room of My Own'', at the Theater at 45 Bleecker Street, also in New York City. In 2011, Ferranti appeared with former Sopranos

Vincent Pastore Vincent Pastore (; born July 14, 1946) is an American actor. Often cast as a mafioso, he is best known for his portrayal of Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero on the HBO series ''The Sopranos''. Early life Pastore was born to an Italian-Ameri ...

and

Frank Vincent Frank Vincent Gattuso Jr. (April 15, 1937 – September 13, 2017) was an American actor. During a five-decade career, Vincent often portrayed mobsters. He was a frequent collaborator of filmmaker Martin Scorsese, appearing as Salvy in ''Raging B ...

in the action suspense featur
Spy
Later that year, Ferranti appeared in the dramatic fil
Choose
which co-starred Michael J. Burg. On October 13, 2011, at the Triad Theater in New York City, Ferranti again teamed up with Charles Messina and Johnny Tammaro in a staged reading of Messina's play about the life of singer Dion called ''The Wanderer - the Life and Music of Dion''. Ferranti made her directorial debut on March 29, 2012 as director of the

play ''Fugazy'' at the 13th St Repertory Theater. The play, along with two other of Messina's one acts - ''Merging'' and ''Sick Bastids'' - were presented as a trilogy titled ''The Tenement Plays''. The performances ran until April 1, 2012. Ferranti appeared at a fundraiser for the Abingdon Square Theatre on September 22, 2013. She was part of a group of actors including (in alphabetical order): Michael Barbieri,

Anthony DeSando Anthony DeSando (born December 4, 1965), also known as Anthony Joseph De Santis, is an American actor. DeSando often portrays a joker or dapper villain in mob films such as ''New Jack City''. Early life DeSando was born in Jersey City, New Je ...

, Alfredo Diaz, Nick Fondulis,

Khalid Gonçalves Khalid Gonçalves (Arabic: خالد Khālid, Portuguese: ɡõˈsaɫvɨʃ) (born Paul Pires Gonçalves; September 8, 1971) is an American actor and musician who is best known for his portrayal of British rock icon Freddie Mercury in the off-Broadwa ...

, Steven LaChioma, Tom Alan Robbins, Scott Seidman, and Johnny Tammaro, who read from three plays by writer/director Charles Messina.

Production credits

Ferranti was co-producer of the play Mercury: The Afterlife and Times of a Rock God

Filmography

*
Merging
' (2008) *
Eviction
' (2009) *
Nadine
'(2010) *
Choose
'(2011) *
Spy
'(2011)

References

External links

Official site

Gina Ferranti
on

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

(IMDb) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferranti, Gina American film actresses American theatre managers and producers Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) American stage actresses American people of Italian descent Living people Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre alumni University at Albany, SUNY alumni 21st-century American women