(MARY ANN SIMPSON) With a solid and acclaimed acting career on the screen and American stages, BOSSA NOVA is the first feature film production Amy Irving shot in Brazil, under the helm of her husband, Bruno Barreto, with whom she'd previously worked in A Show of Force and Carried Away. The actress has lived with dramatic arts practically since she was born, in Palo Alto, California. Daughter of stage director Jules Irving and actress Priscilla Pointer, Mrs. Irving trained at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. On stage in New York, she starred in Amadeus, on Broadway, and appeared in three productions of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, playing all three title roles.

Irving made her feature film debut in Brian De Palma's Carrie (1976). She went on to starring roles in Joel Oliansky's The Competition (1980), playing a classical pianist, co-starring with Richard Dreyfuss, and in Barbra Streisand's Yentl, which brought her an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress. More recently, she starred in Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry (1997), the TV film The Confession, opposite Alec Baldwin and Ben Kingsley, and James Row's The Shepherd. She's also lent her vocal talents to the songs sung by the sensual Jessica Rabbit, in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

The actress met Bruno Barreto in the set of A Show of Force, the Brazilian director's American directorial debut. They reissued their partnership in Carried Away. The actress has two children: Max, born from her marriage to Steven Spielberg, and Gabriel, with Bruno Barreto.