This lithe, attractive, raven-haired actress possesses piercing cobalt eyes and a brash New York attitude that has helped make her an increasingly popular character player in films and TV. As Debi M, Mazar previously worked as a makeup artist with a clientele that included Madonna before making her acting debut in Martin Scorsese's "GoodFellas" (1990), as the coke-snorting girlfriend of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta). Small but indelible roles in Oliver Stone's "The Doors", Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever" and Jodie Foster's "Little Man Tate" (all 1991) followed. Segueing to the small screen, Mazar garnered attention as the tough-talking, scene-stealing legal secretary Denise Iannello in the ABC divorce lawyers drama, "Civil Wars" (1991-93). After the cancellation of "Wars", Mazar, in a rare primetime occurrence, jumped networks to reprise the character on NBC's "L.A. Law" for the 1993-94 season.
She made her feature debut as a lead opposite John Cusack in the blue collar comedy "Money For Nothing" (1993) and offered a deliciously vivid performance as a villainous dog owner (with a nod to Cruela De Vil) in "Beethoven's 2nd" (1993). Mazar went on to appear in such films as "Batman Forever" (1995), as Spice to Drew Barrymore's Sugar, "Things I Never Told You" (1996), playing a transsexual, and "Frogs for Snakes" (1998), portraying Robbie Coltrane's bleached blonde girlfriend. She never became a feature film headliner, but always seemed game to tackle whatever diverting role came her way, no matter how big or how small.
Returning to the small screen, Mazar starred in the short-lived sitcom "Temporarily Yours" (CBS, 1997). Playing up her Brooklyn accent and displaying a knack for physical humor, the actress headlined the show about a temp-for-hire who frequently found herself in absurd situations--obviously influenced by the success of "The Nanny," the show failed to click in the ratings. Mazar turned dramatic limning a strong portrait of the wife of a gangster in the based-on-fact miniseries "Witness to the Mob" (NBC, 1998) before joining the cast of the NBC sitcom "Working" in the fall of 1998. Two years later, she was back on the small screen in the short-lived CBS series "That's Life" as the advice-dispensing hairdresser-best pal to the series' lead played by Heather Paige Kent. She was never away from the small screen very long, enjoying recurring roles on such series as "7th Heaven" and "All of Us" and guest shots on popular shows such as "Friends," "The Practice," "NYPD Blue" "CSI: Miami."
Mazar finally found a regular TV role perfectly suited to her honking New Yawk attitude when she was cast as the canny, outspoken Hollywood publicist Shauna in the freewheeling HBO comedy series "Entourage" (2004 - ). Meanwhile, she routinely reappeared on the big screen, spicing up small roles in films such as "Collateral" and "Be Cool" (both 2004)