Carla Gugino has been featured in dozens of prominent films and television series over the span of her 35-year career. At 52 years old, the Florida native has had an illustrious career in entertainment that started with a guest appearance on the long-running comedy series Who’s The Boss? in 1988. Gugino spent the early part of her career making several one-episode appearances in series such as Good Morning, Miss Bliss, ALF, Ferris Bueller, The Wonder Years, and Quantum Leap. She would later appear in several episodes of the hit HBO series Entourage as well as the 2006 Ben still movie Night at the Museum.
Gugino’s earliest works in film include 1989’s Troop Beverly Hills, 1990’s Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael, and 1993’s This Boy’s Life alongside Robert De Niro and a young Leonardo DiCaprio. After a brief stint in season 1 of Spin City led by Michael J. Fox, Gugino would go on to star in many more shows and feature films throughout the 1990s, 2000s, and beyond. She is arguably best known for her role as Ingrid Cortez in the Spy Kids films as well as her various roles in Mike Flanagan’s celebrated Netflix horror series such as The Haunting of Bly Manor and Midnight Mass.
10 Watchmen (2009)
Gugino starred as Sally Jupiter / Silk Spectre in Zack Snyder’s underrated 2009 action drama Watchmen. The film is an adaptation of the DC Comics series that took place in an alternate reality in the year 1985, with Gugino playing the original version of the superhero Silk Spectre. While Snyder’s Watchmen pales in comparison to the recent 2019 HBO series of the same name, the film demonstrates Gugino’s talent in the action genre, which the versatile actor has expressed interest in returning to sometime in the future.
9 Roadies (2016)
Roadies was a Showtime series that was beloved by fans until it was surprisingly canceled after just one season. Gugino shines as Shelli Anderson, a straight-shooting production manager who oversees a traveling road crew responsible for setting up a major rock band’s stage on a multi-city tour. Roadies peeks into the hidden world of the behind-the-scenes personnel who travel with famous musical acts and make their concerts possible, chronicling their unusual and fast-paced lifestyle that is full of music, comedy, and drama.
8 Spy Kids (2001)
The original Spy Kids featured Gugino’s breakout role as the secret agent mother of Carmen and Juni Cortez, better known as the Spy Kids. The Robert Rodriguez film is an iconic part of the early 2000s and a staple movie for the millennial generation, featuring family-friendly action and humor that sparked a four-installment movie franchise. Gugino’s movie career received a huge boost with the success of Spy Kids, landing her more leading roles in several other notable blockbusters of the 2000s.
7 Gerald’s Game (2017)
Gerald’s Game was the first movie Gugino starred in after the disappointing cancelation of 2016’s Roadies and also marked her first collaboration with horror auteur Mike Flanagan. Gerald’s Game features an incredibly compelling premise in which Gugino’s Jessie is left stranded and handcuffed to a bed in a remote lake house after her husband Gerald (Bruce Greenwood) unexpectedly dies while trying to heat things up in their sex life. Gerald’s Game symbolically prefaces the onscreen dynamic that Gugino and Greenwood share in The Fall of the House of Usher.
6 Jett (2019)
Jett is yet again another underrated and short-lived television series starring Gugino. Despite its positive reviews, Cinemax has not announced a release date for season 2 of the exciting crime thriller series in which Gugino plays a world-class thief named Daisy “Jett” Kowalski. Jett was created by Gugino’s husband Sebastian Gutierrez, who she has been married to since 1996. At only nine episodes, Jett is a sleek and highly enjoyable crime drama that is not afraid to break convention and traditional genre tropes.
5 Sin City (2005)
Sin City is one of the most uniquely stylized films to come out of the 2000s. Helmed by famed comic book artist and writer Frank Miller in collaboration with Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, Sin City is a visual monochrome masterpiece with exceptional performances by Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Hartnett, and more. It’s a marvel of filmmaking that has a special place in film history which Gugino will forever be a part of.
4 Manhunt (2017 – 2020)
Manhunt is a compelling retelling of FBI profiler Jim “Fitz” Fitzgerald (Sam Worthington) who assisted in tracking down Ted Kaczynski, otherwise known as the infamous Unabomber. Manhunt season 2 focuses on the search for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics Bomber with another set of actors, including Gugino who portrays real-life Atlanta journalist Kathy Scruggs. Both seasons of Manhunt are powerful, entertaining, and thoughtfully crafted, making the entire series worth the watch.
3 The Fall Of The House Of Usher (2023)
The Fall of the House of Usher has opened to excellent reviews, immediately placing it in the upper tier of both Gugino and Flanagan’s best works. Gugino steals the show as an alluring shapeshifting demonic presence that convinces two eager capitalist siblings working for a powerful pharmaceutical company to make a deal for immense fame and fortune. Based on the selected works of Edgar Allen Poe, Gugino is the most formidable part of The Fall of the House of Usher as the sinister Raven character who is reminiscent of the Grim Reaper.
2 American Gangster (2007)
Fifteen years after its release, American Gangster remains one of the best crime dramas of the 21st century. Featuring an incredibly talented cast of Denzel Washington, Russel Crowe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Josh Brolin, the Ridley Scott film is based on the true story of New York City drug lord Frank Lucas. Gugino plays Laurie Roberts in the film, the wife and primary supporter of police officer Riche Roberts. The screenplay expertly written by Steven Zallian (Schindler’s List, Mission: Impossible, Moneyball) is one of the main attractions of American Gangster.
1 The Haunting Of Hill House (2018)
At the top of both Gugino’s and Flanagan’s list of prominent works is the innovative 2018 horror series The Haunting of Hill House. Gugino plays Olivia Crain, the matriarch of the family who is notably sensitive to spirits, ghosts, and other supernatural phenomena. Mike Flanagan and Carla Gugino brought the positive momentum of Gerald’s Game’s critical acclaim into the profoundly otherworldly Haunting of Hill House, which all fans of the supernatural and horror genres can certainly appreciate.
