Alicia Coppola (born April 12, 1968) is an American actress and author. She became known for playing Lorna Devon in the soap opera Another World from 1991 to 1994. Afterwards, she made regular and guest star appearances in various television series, notably Jericho and Blood & Treasure, and appeared in films such as National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
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Early life
Coppola was born and raised in Huntington, Long Island, New York in an Italian American family. She graduated from Kent School in 1986 and New York University in 1990 with a degree in philosophy and anthropology. She originally planned to attend law school, but instead went into modeling, signing with Elite Modeling Agency.
Coppola is not related to the Coppola family.
Career
Coppola's first TV appearance was in 1988 in an uncredited role on Saturday Night Live, playing a party guest of Michael Dukakis. Her first credited role was as hostess during the fourth season of the MTV game show Remote Control, replacing Kari Wuhrer, from 1989 to 1990.
In 1991, Coppola joined the cast of the soap opera Another World, playing the vixen Lorna Devon, the long-lost daughter of popular character Felicia Gallant. She played the role until 1994.
Coppola's better-known TV jobs have included a recurring role on Trinity (1998–99), a starring role on the American remake of the British comedy Cold Feet (1999), and top billing on the TNT drama Bull (2000). She played Leesa in a 1999 episode of Sports Night, appeared briefly as Betazoid Lt. Stadi in the pilot episode of Star Trek: Voyager, played a cannibalistic murderer on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and a widow who marries her late husband's killer on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Coppola appeared several times as JAG lawyer Lieutenant Commander Faith Coleman on JAG and NCIS, although she also appeared in a season 2 episode of CBS' NCIS: Los Angeles ("Little Angels") as a different character, FBI agent Amy Rand, an expert on kidnapping cases, and then once again as a third new character in NCIS: Origins. Coppola also played multiple characters in separate episodes of Crossing Jordan; she played a detective in a 2003 episode, and later took on the unusual role of a female serial killer agreeing to help catch her copycat in the 2005 episode titled "Road Kill". Similarly, she appeared on Two and a Half Men as Dr. Michelle Talmadge, in the episode "Woo-Hoo, a Hernia Exam!" (2005), and then a different character, TC Randall, in a 2013 episode. In 2003, she starred alongside Gary Oldman and Ving Rhames in the film Sin, and played a rehab patient and producer, Toni Stark, on an episode of Dawson's Creek. She had a recurring role on NBC's American Dreams, playing the role of Nancy.
Coppola played a short role on the Fox television series Bones in 2005 as Joy Deaver in the episode "The Girl in the Fridge".
Coppola had a role as a Muslim intelligence analyst working for the Los Angeles branch of the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU), in a single episode of 24, named Azara ("1–2 am" during Day 4). All four of her scenes were cut from the broadcast episode, but are restored as extras on the Day 4 DVD. In them, she discovers a lead in the investigation which is originally dismissed by fellow analyst Edgar Stiles, who suspects her because of her religion. Edgar later apologizes to her when her lead turns out to be important.
Starting in the fall of 2006, Coppola appeared in the recurring role of IRS Agent Mimi Clark in the post-apocalyptic drama Jericho. She became a series regular in February 2007. She played FBI Agent Spellman in National Treasure: Book of Secrets, also directed by Jericho executive producer Jon Turteltaub.
Coppola has also appeared on The Nine Lives of Chloe King as Valentina, the leader of the Mai. She appeared on Monk in "Mr. Monk and the Blackout" as the power plant public relations spokesperson and as Monk's date. She appeared in the MTV series Teen Wolf as the powerful Alpha werewolf Talia Hale.
In 2014, Coppola appeared on Sons of Anarchy as Mildred Treal in the episode "Faith and Despondency". She returned to daytime soap operas for the first time in twenty years when she took a recurring role on CBS's The Young and the Restless in spring 2016. Coppola appeared as Dr. Tammy Brunner in a 2017 episode of Designated Survivor.
Coppola had a recurring role as Carrie Walsh, the owner of a questionable drug rehabilitation facility called Winding Path, in season 6 of the first responder procedural 9-1-1.
In 2013, Coppola published a non-fiction book titled Gracefully Gone, which combines excerpts from her late father's journals and her own. Her father's journal entries are from 1982, two years after he was diagnosed with and then went into remission from brain cancer, while her own are from 1990 and 1991 when she was around 22, during the last six months of his life.
Coppola made her producing, directing and screenwriting debut in a 2017 short film, Between Us. Coppola also acted in the film, which was based on her father's death. Between Us was shown at the Los Angeles Feedback Film Festival in 2018 and at the Artemis Women in Action Film Festival in 2019. She also wrote and directed the 2024 short film And You Are...? starring Jane Seymour and Zack Barack. The film explores the relationship between a grandmother with dementia and her transgender grandson, gaining inspiration from having both a family member with Alzheimer's disease and a transgender son herself. And You Are...? was shown at the Beverley Hills Film Festival and the CinePride Film Festival.
Personal life
Coppola is married to actor, writer, and producer Anthony Michael Jones, best known for appearing in General Hospital as Father Coates, a recurring occasional role which he played in 11 episodes from 2002 through 2010. They have three children, two daughters and a son.
