Aleksa Palladino

Aleksa Palladino (born September 21, 1980) is an American actress and singer, perhaps best known for her lead roles in Manny & Lo, The Adventures of Sebastian Cole, Find Me Guilty, Angela Darmody in the HBO crime series Boardwalk Empire (2010–2011), Mara in Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (2007), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), The Midnight Swim (2014), Mary Sheeran in The Irishman (2019), and No Man of God (2021). She also played a main role in the second season of the AMC period drama Halt and Catch Fire. From 2007 to 2018, she was one half of the dreampop duo Exitmusic with former husband Devon Church, releasing the albums The Decline of the West (2007), Passage (2012), and The Recognitions (2018).

Early life
Palladino was born in New York City, where she grew up and worked as an actress. She is the only child of filmmaker, soprano singer, photographer, graphic artist, and producer Sabrina A. Palladino, and the granddaughter of Sicilian painter and sculptor Angela Fodale Palladino and the Italian-American illustrator and graphic designer Anthony Americo "Tony" Palladino, who designed the lettering for Robert Bloch's 1959 novel Psycho. An episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, is dedicated to Tony. Palladino's aunt, Kate Palladino-Kirk, is a designer, her great-great-uncle Rocco Fodale was a painter from Trapani, and her great-uncle Tonino Fodale worked as a retoucher for the biggest fashion photographers, such as Richard Avedon and Peter Lindbergh. Palladino's ancestral origins are in Naples and Sicily.

Acting
Her debut role was as "Lo" in Manny & Lo opposite Scarlett Johansson and Mary Kay Place, in which she played a 16-year-old character despite being 14 at the time. The next year, she was given her first lead role in the short film Number One Fan with Glenn Fitzgerald, and soon appeared in Wrestling with Alligators with Joely Richardson, the well-received The Adventures of Sebastian Cole with Adrian Grenier, and Second Skin with Fitzgerald again.

The year 2000 saw the release of Red Dirt, followed by the independent film Lonesome, and Storytelling with Selma Blair. She then had guest appearances in Law & Order: Criminal Intent (where she played two different characters), The Sopranos and Law & Order.

In 2004, Palladino returned to acting with a guest appearance on Medium, followed by her lead role in Spectropia and a supporting one in Find Me Guilty with Vin Diesel. After she worked in Find Me Guilty, director Sidney Lumet offered Palladino the role of Chris Lasorda in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. She then appeared in The Picture of Dorian Gray, based on the novel by Oscar Wilde, and landed a supporting role in the acclaimed horror sequel Wrong Turn 2: Dead End.

The 2010s saw her busy mainly on television; her role as Prohibition-era gangster Jimmy Darmody's closeted wife Angela in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire stands out. She was also a series regular of season two in the critically acclaimed AMC series Halt and Catch Fire as Sara Wheeler. Her next important film role was Mary Sheeran in Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, which was distributed by Netflix and received only a limited theatrical release.

Music
Palladino was the lead singer and songwriter of the band Exitmusic. After self-releasing their debut album in 2007, the band released an EP and a follow-up album on indie label Secretly Canadian in 2011 and 2012, respectively. Palladino released a final Exitmusic album on Felte Records in 2018.

Personal life
Palladino formed the band Exitmusic with her husband Devon Church, whom she had met on a cross-Canada train trip in 2001. Palladino and Church divorced in 2015.

Discography
with Duo Exitmusic
 * The Decline of the West (self-released, 2007)
 * From Silence (EP) (Secretly Canadian, 2011)
 * Passage (Secretly Canadian, 2012)
 * The Recognitions (Felte, 2018)