20 Actors You Totally Forgot Were On The Sopranos

"The Sopranos" is all about family... and there are some members of that show's extended family you might recognize.

Debuting in 1999, HBO's mobster saga starred James Gandolfini as New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano, following both his henchmen and rivals in the criminal underworld and also his struggles at home with his wife Carmela and their two kids. It became one of the most acclaimed TV series of all time and made stars out of Gandolfini, Edie Falco (who played Carmela), and more — but it also served as a launchpad for more than a dozen significant showbiz careers, offering early roles to future Emmy winners, sitcom stars... and one pop music icon.

Join us as we take a seat outside Satriale's and look back at 20 famous faces who appeared on "The Sopranos" before they were famous. And if you think we missed someone? Hit the comments below to jog our memories.

Yes, years before she blazed onto the pop charts with "Just Dance," Lady Gaga (aka Stefani Germanotta) made an uncredited appearance in a Season 3 episode as one of a group of girls smoking cigarettes and giggling while A.J. and his friends trash a school swimming pool.

Gaga — who went on to earn an Oscar nomination for her acting work in "A Star Is Born," along with starring roles in "House of Gucci" and "Joker: Folie à Deux" — isn't exactly proud of her work on "The Sopranos," though. "When I look back on that scene, I can see exactly what I did wrong in that scene," Gaga told EW. "I didn't know how to listen in a scene! I was supposed to laugh, and it was sort of like, cue, laugh.... I see it and I go, 'Oh, that's not a real laugh!'"

Michael B. Jordan is one of the hottest commodities in Hollywood right now, with starring roles in "Sinners," "Black Panther," and the "Creed" movies. But one of his very first onscreen credits was in a Season 1 episode of "The Sopranos." Just a kid at the time, Jordan played one of a trio of street toughs who harassed a young Tony in a flashback to his youth.

Jordan went on to appear in another seminal HBO crime drama, "The Wire," as teen drug dealer Wallace. As he grew up, he moved onto roles on "All My Children" and "Friday Night Lights" before breaking out on the big screen in "Fruitvale Station" and becoming the box-office powerhouse he is today.

Milioti just took home the Emmy for best lead actress in a limited series for playing mob princess Sofia Falcone on HBO's "The Penguin"... but her experience with HBO mob dramas goes back a lot farther than that.

In Season 6 of "The Sopranos," Milioti — in one of her first credited roles — appeared in three episodes as Catherine Sacrimoni, the youngest daughter of mob boss Johnny Sack. Milioti now remembers that Steve Buscemi, who directed her first episode, discovered her when she was working at a coffee shop and cast her as Catherine. "He would come into this coffee shop because it was near where he lived," she recalls. "He was so sweet."

Milioti went on to book guest roles on "30 Rock" and "Nurse Jackie" (with Falco!) before scoring her breakout role as Tracy, aka The Mother, on "How I Met Your Mother."

A year before he first took on the iconic role of Omar Little on "The Wire," Williams appeared in another HBO crime drama, popping up in the Season 3 finale of "The Sopranos."

Williams played Ray Ray, who agreed to let Jackie Aprile Jr. hide out with him in his housing project apartment after a botched robbery. (Jackie Jr. still got whacked, though.) Along with his work on "The Wire," Williams went on to play memorable roles on "Boardwalk Empire," "The Night Of," and "When They See Us" before his untimely death in 2021.

He went on to revolutionize Broadway with his hit musical "Hamilton," but back in 2007, Lin-Manuel Miranda was still a struggling actor who was thrilled to book a tiny role on "The Sopranos." In a Season 6 episode, Miranda played a hotel bellhop who wasn't very helpful when Tony and Paulie Walnuts quizzed him about the history of the building.

"I'm so green, you can see me look down at my mark," Miranda later recalled about his brief guest spot. He heaped praise on series star James Gandolfini, though, for being so gracious: "He stayed and did his sides, even though it was the end of the night. He had no need to do that. He stayed and did the scene for the scared-s**tless Puerto Rican kid in the bellhop outfit."

Before her breakout turn as Quinn Perkins, who worked at Olivia Pope's crisis management firm on the ABC hit "Scandal," Katie Lowes had a blink-and-you'll miss-it role on "The Sopranos," playing a wedding guest in a Season 6 episode. Her character Gillian turns her nose up at the reception's seafood station because of the "toxins" — while happily puffing away on a cigarette.

Lowes grew up on Long Island, so she excitedly invited her family to the "Sopranos" set to watch her film her part. "I can't believe I even got to do that. It was so wild," she later remembered, adding that the main "Sopranos" cast members "were all so nice to my family. I had one line. Like, who cares?... They were all just such a family. That was the vibe they had on set, which you could tell on the show."

Best known for his film work in "There Will Be Blood" and "Little Miss Sunshine," Paul Dano first made his mark as Patrick, one of A.J.'s friends, on "The Sopranos."

In a Season 4 episode, Patrick joined A.J.'s other friends in needling A.J. about his dad Tony's mob connections. They even talked A.J. into taking them to Tony's strip club the Bada Bing... but they ended up at Satriale's instead.

A year before she first scrubbed in as nurse Carla on the ABC sitcom "Scrubs," Judy Reyes found herself in Paulie Walnuts' bed in a Season 2 "Sopranos" episode.

She played Michelle, a lady companion of Paulie's who tried to help ease his mind after he was shaken by Christopher's nightmarish visions of hell. So naturally, she advised him to go see her psychic.

Mike Epps is known for his comedy roles in the "Friday" sequels and "The Hangover" — he currently co-stars with Wanda Sykes on the Netflix sitcom "The Upshaws" — and one of his earliest acting credits was comedic as well, appearing in just the second episode ever of "The Sopranos."

In Season 1's "46 Long," Epps played Jerome, the boyfriend of a car thief who was tracked down and roughed up by Paulie. At just 21 years old, Epps was thrilled to book the role... but he was surprised to learn his character was gay. "I don't know how to play a gay guy, but I know how to talk like my mother," he later recalled. "So I did the role, got my little money, and moved on."

Katie Lowes isn't the only Shondaland alum to break bread with "The Sopranos." Back in 2004, a year before she debuted as Dr. Miranda Bailey on "Grey's Anatomy" — a role she's still playing to this day, by the way, two decades later — Chandra Wilson popped up in a Season 5 episode as Evelyn, who attended an anger management class with Tony's sister Janice. (Janice attacked another mom at a kids' soccer game, you see.)

Evelyn and Janice saw eye to eye at first... until Janice started complaining about Black people riding around in SUVs and "blasting that rap s**t." Yeah, she could use a few more classes, we think.

"The Sopranos" always seems to catch future stars a year before they first break out. In 2002, before his work as Gob Bluth on "Arrested Development" made him a comedy name to watch the following year, Will Arnett appeared in a pair of Season 4 episodes as FBI agent Mike Waldrup.

Arnett played a key role in Season 4, too: His character Mike was married to fellow FBI agent Deborah Ciccerone, who went undercover as "Danielle" to earn Adriana's trust — a move that eventually led to one of the show's most shocking and tragic moments, as Silvio took Adriana out for betraying the family. (R.I.P.)

Before "The Sopranos" signed off for good, it gave future "NCIS" star Emily Wickersham — who would go on to play agent Ellie Bishop for eight seasons on the long-running CBS procedural — one of her earliest role as Rhiannon, a love interest for A.J.

Wickersham recurred in the final season as Rhiannon, who bonded with A.J. when they were patients at the same clinic: him for depression, her for dietary issues. They were still together in the series finale, too, so we'll just imagine that A.J. and Rhiannon lived happily ever after.

Yes, more than one Bluth brother ended up crossing paths with "The Sopranos." (We're not sure which family is more dysfunctional, actually.)

Two years before he took on the role of the blissfully stupid Buster Bluth on "Arrested Development," Tony Hale appeared in a Season 3 episode as a nurse helping Uncle Junior get his chemo treatments. He later recalled how nervous he was shooting the role: "Because of my anxiety, my nerves will manifest itself in my hands; my hands will start shaking. And I was a nurse oncologist to Uncle Junior, and I'll never forget my hands were violently shaking about to put a tube into his arm."

Here's another funnyman who played doctor on "The Sopranos": Aasif Mandvi played a physician in a Season 6 episode in 2006, the same year he broke out as a correspondent on "The Daily Show."

Mandvi played Dr. Abu Bilal, who treated Tony's mob rival Phil Leotardo after he thought he was having a heart attack. The doc tried to tell him it was just gas, but Phil ended up suffering an actual heart attack and clinging to life in a hospital bed. (That might be why we didn't see Dr. Abu again after that; he was probably sleeping with the fishes.) 

We know Michael Kelly best as creepy chief of staff Doug Stamper on the Netflix political drama "House of Cards," where he appeared in all six seasons. But years before that show kickstarted a streaming TV revolution, Kelly played another government employee on "The Sopranos."

Kelly — with a lot more hair! — recurred in Season 6 as FBI agent Ron Goddard, who looked for possible terrorist activity while partnered up with that perpetual thorn in Tony's side, Agent Harris.

We already mentioned that Quinn from "Scandal" made an early appearance on "The Sopranos," and it turns out Huck did, too. In Season 1, Guillermo Diaz played an employee at a plant nursery who tried to sell Tony some earth-friendly pest repellent — but of course, Tony didn't want anything earth-friendly.

A decade later, Diaz would make his debut as hacker Huck on the hit ABC drama "Scandal," following an extended run on Showtime's "Weeds." But even before "The Sopranos," stoner comedy fans might have recognized him as the foul-mouthed Scarface from 1998's "Half Baked."

These days, Grace Van Patten is a rising star in Hollywood, headlining Hulu's romantic drama "Tell Me Lies" and playing the lead role in the recent true crime docudrama "The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox." But when she was just 8 years old, she made her acting debut in a pair of "Sopranos" episodes.

She played Ally, the daughter of mobster Eugene, in Season 6, and she had a family connection off-screen, too. Her father, Tim Van Patten, is an Emmy-winning director who helmed 20 episodes of "The Sopranos," including the two Grace was in.

He had already appeared in films like "Crooklyn" and "Dead Presidents," but Bokeem Woodbine was still far from famous when he slipped into the role of smooth-talking rapper Massive Genius in a Season 1 episode of "The Sopranos."

Massive Genius offered to help launch Adriana's career as a music producer, but Christopher stepped in when he realized the guy was just trying to steal Adriana away from him. 15 years later, Woodbine joined another acclaimed TV crime drama when he played hitman Mike Milligan in Season 2 of FX's "Fargo," earning an Emmy nomination for the role. 

She's currently haunting Woodstone Manor as uptight ghost Hetty on the CBS sitcom "Ghosts," but Rebecca Wisocky scored one of his first TV roles on "The Sopranos," playing attorney Rene Cabot Moskowitz in a Season 6 episode.

Rene was prosecuting mob boss Johnny Sack and worked to hammer out a plea deal with Johnny's defense attorney. Johnny eventually pled guilty and had to admit his involvement with the Jersey mob, angering his Mafia pals. Wisocky, meanwhile, spent nearly another decade booking guest roles before landing the part of chilly housewife Evelyn Powell on Lifetime's "Devious Maids" in 2013.   

He's a familiar face to TV fans for his roles on "The Office," "24," and "Silicon Valley," where he played cocky tech titan Rush Hanneman. But back in 2006, Chris Diamantopoulos was still mostly unknown when he showed up beside Tony Soprano's hospital bed in a Season 6 episode.

Diamantopoulos played Jason Barone, a ski instructor who didn't realize that his father's trash business was a mob front and sold it to Tony's rival Johnny Sack. As you might imagine, Tony was not happy, and though he wanted to let the kid off easy, Paulie Walnuts bashed Jason's legs in with a metal pipe to teach him a lesson. Diamantopoulos learned a lesson on set, too, when actor Tony Sirico, who played Paulie, got a little too into character.

"Sirico had two pipes, a lead pipe and a rubber pipe," Diamantopoulos later explained, "one to use when the camera was on me, and one to use when the camera was on him. Which one do you think he used on me the first time?... It wasn't the fake one." He added with a laugh that he "got whacked by Paulie Walnuts and lived to tell about it."