Jamie-Lynn Sigler (formerly DiScala; born May 15, 1981) is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Meadow Soprano on the HBO television series The Sopranos. Sigler was born in Queens, New York City to Steve and Connie Sigler. Her father is a Sephardic Jew, the son of immigrants from Greece and Romania, and her mother is a Cuban-born convert to Judaism. Sigler grew up on Long Island in Jericho, New York, and began acting and singing at age 7. She attended Jericho High School. Sigler also attended the Cultural Arts Playhouse where she played many leads. In 1997, she was cast as the smart but troubled Meadow Soprano, daughter of New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano. The show premiered in 1999 and became a huge success, with Sigler rising to some fame as a TV actress. In 2000, while filming Campfire Stories in Hamburg, New Jersey, Sigler was paralyzed from the waist down for several days having contracted Lyme disease. Sigler then spent five months on Broadway from October 2002 through February 2003 playing Belle in Beauty and the Beast where she replaced long-running Belle Sarah Litzsinger. She has continued to appear in theatrical roles, such as Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. In 2004, she starred as "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss in the USA television movie Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss. In that same year, she had her first starring feature film role, Extreme Dating, an independent film. In 2005, Sigler starred in Lovewrecked and the following year in Homie Spumoni, when she played the role of Alli, the girlfriend of Renato/Leroy (Donald Faison) directed by Mike Cerron. Also in October 2008, she appeared as herself in the fifth season of the HBO series Entourage, appearing in the episodes First Class Jerk, Playing With Fire and Return to Queens Blvd, as the love interest of the character Sal 'Turtle' Assante, portrayed by Jerry Ferrara. She returned as a recurring guest star for season six of the series, after becoming Ferrara's real-life girlfriend. On November 17, 2008, Sigler guest-starred as Jillian on the TV series How I Met Your Mother in the episode "Woooo!" On the December 6, 2008 airing of Saturday Night Live, she appeared as the checkout girl for the SNL Digital Short music video "Jizz in My Pants" by The Lonely Island.[9] In 2009 she starred in the psychological thriller film Wake. The same year, she appeared on ABC's Ugly Betty in a five-episode arc. In 2001, she released a pop album called Here to Heaven, which featured the single "Cry Baby". The album was a commercial failure and had low sales. In 2007 Sigler said she was "embarrassed" by the album and regrets releasing it. In 2002, she co-authored an autobiography, Wise Girl: What I've Learned About Life, Love, and Loss. In October 2008, the actress paired up with MasterCard to promote the MasterCard Savings Program, a new rewards program for debit MasterCard and prepaid MasterCard cardholders.
