Born and raised in Connecticut, Sciorra studied dance as a child and eschewed college to pursue her dream of acting. By age 20, she had founded her own small theater company and soon landed roles in NYC productions at such prestigious venues as LaMaMa and the Actors Repertory Theatre. In 1988, Sciorra landed her first prominent role, as Sophia Loren's daughter in the 1988 NBC miniseries "Mario Puzo's The Fortunate Pilgrim". The following year, moviegoers saw her as the bride in "True Love" (her countenance graced the posters for the film) and she soon landed a string of girlfriend/wife roles that she invested with skill and grace, making several of them more memorable than perhaps initially envisioned. In 1990 alone, the exotic beauty made of the most of parts like the cheating wife in "Cadillac Man", the spouse of a rogue cop (Richard Gere) in "Internal Affairs" and the lover of an ego-driven lawyer in "Reversal of Fortune". Following her back-to-back successes in "Jungle Fever" and "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle", it was expected Sciorra would become a full-fledged leading lady, but misfires like "Whispers in the Dark" (1992) and "The Night We Never Met" (1993) coupled with unfounded yet widely publicized rumors of clashes on sets (particularly with Spike Lee) combined to take the heat off her. (Indeed, a decade later, the guarded and very private Sciorra is still sometimes erroneously categorized as "cold" or "difficult".)
The actress offered a fine turn as the mother of a young AIDS patient in "The Cure" (1995) and initiated an intriguing collaboration with director Abel Ferrara. While she may clearly be one of the director's favorite performers, he did not cast her in leading roles. Instead she was relegated to supporting parts like a vampire in "The Addiction" (1995) and a Mafia wife in "The Funeral" (on which she also served as an associate producer). Sciorra earned critical praise as Robin Williams' despondent widow in the fantasy "What Dreams May Come" (1998) but had little to do as the kidnapped spouse of a contract killer in "Once in the Life" (2000). Fortunately in 2001, she found a superb outlet for her gifts when she was tapped to portray a slinky car salesperson who becomes the mistress of gangster Tony Soprano on the popular HBO drama series "The Sopranos". Her spirited and sexy performance garnered her a much deserved Emmy nod and although her affair with the Mafia chieftain had ended, the door was still open for her character to return in later episodes.
Sciorra returned to television portraying the attractive, fiery Judge Kim Vicidomini, who quickly proves that her political connections and legal savvy are an asset both in and out of the courtroom, in the short-lived CBS judicial drama "Queens Supreme" (2003) opposite Oliver Platt and Robert Loggia. Roles in the Mandy Moore First Daughter comedy "Chasing Liberty" (2004) and the telepics "The Madam's Family: The Truth About the Canal Street Brothel" (2004) and "Identity Theft: The Michelle Brown Story" (2004) followed. After a guest stint on producer Dick Wolf's "Law & Order: Trial by Jury" in 2005, the actress then signed on to play a new character, Detective Carolyn Barek, the female partner of Chris Noth's Detective Mike Logan, on Wolf's "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (NBC, 2001 - ) when the series was largely recast in 2005.