This pretty, dark-haired young actress first attracted attention as a worrisome young brideto-be in the mordantly funny independent film True Love (1989). Her winning performance and warm personality catapulted her into major studio projects, albeit in ordinary supporting roles. She was Tim Robbins' wife in Cadillac Man (1990), precipitating that film's comedic carnage. She played Richard Gere's wife in Internal Affairs (1990) and James Woods' girlfriend in The Hard Way (1991), then snagged a starring role as the ItalianAmerican woman from Brooklyn who falls in love with Wesley Snipes in Spike Lee's controversial Jungle Fever (1991), a high-profile film that put her on magazine covers, and heralded her arrival as an actress to watch. Since then she's appeared in the surprise hit The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Whispers in the Dark (both 1992), The Night We Never Met, Mr. Wonderful (both 1993), and Romeo Is Bleeding (1994).

IMDb Trivia

Surname pronounced "SHOW-ruh".

Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1990" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 42.

Italian-American.

Her father is a veterinarian.