OSCARS IN OAKDALE

It isn't only James Earl Jones, Marisa Tomei and Julianne Moore who can claim to be Academy Award nominees with ATWT connections.

Amy Ryan, nominated last year for Gone, Baby, Gone played a runaway named Renee in 1990 (around the same time as Lauryn Hill was fellow runaway Kira).

There's a big difference between being famous and being successful, and actress Amy Ryan knows that all too well. The Flushing, Queens, native has been consistently working in TV, theater and movies since graduating from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in 1986....

She paid her bills with TV spots on shows like As the World Turns and ER, and her mother made her invest those paychecks. "I was kicking and screaming about it at 18, but I was able to make artistic decisions because I had money in the bank," she says gratefully. By 2000, Amy was a bona fide Broadway star with a Tony nomination for Best Actress in that year's Uncle Vanya. A second Tony nod came in 2005 for her role as Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire. "There's nothing like theater. It's the closest thing to religion for me," says Amy.

Read the entire feature, here.