Steve Buscemi

Steve Buscemi — Biography

Steven Vincent Buscemi was born on 13 December 1957 in Brooklyn to sanitation worker and Korean War veteran John Buscemi and Dorothy Buscemi; his father's family came from Sicily and his mother was of English and Dutch descent, and he was raised Catholic. The family moved to Valley Stream in Nassau County when he was ten; he wrestled in high school, joined the New York City Fire Department in 1977 and fought fires for four years, and briefly rejoined his old firehouse after the September 11 attacks to serve at the World Trade Center site.

After performing comic skits in downtown nightclubs and appearing in independent films, Buscemi drew wide attention as Mr. Pink in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992); he became a frequent collaborator of the Coen brothers on films including Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, Fargo and The Big Lebowski, and also appeared in Armageddon. On television he earned Emmy nominations for The Sopranos, won two Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Golden Globe for playing Nucky Thompson on Boardwalk Empire, and later won a Primetime Emmy for his web talk show. He has also directed films such as Trees Lounge and Animal Factory.

In 2025 he filmed in Istanbul for a movie by Turkish director Tolga Karaçelik, joined the cast of Netflix's Wednesday, and in 2026 was announced for the television adaptation of Far Cry.