Elizabeth Téa Pantaleoni was born on February 25, 1966 in New York City. Her father, Anthony Pantaleoni, was a corporate lawyer, and her mother, Emily Ann (Patterson), worked as a dietitian and nutritionist. She is of Italian (from a paternal great-great-grandfather), Polish, English, Irish, Scottish, and German descent. Téa attended but did not complete studies at Sarah Lawrence College. She started out in acting as Lisa DiNapoli in California Clan (1984) in 1989 and followed up with small roles in Switch - Die Frau im Manne (1991) and Eine Klasse für sich (1992).
In 1992 she starred in the short-lived sitcom Küss mich, Kleiner! (1992). In 1994 she appeared in Wyatt Earp - Das Leben einer Legende (1994) opposite Kevin Costner and Pretty Contessa - Falsche Prinzessin sucht wahre Liebe (1994) opposite D.W. Moffett. In 1995 she starred opposite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in the popular film Bad Boys - Harte Jungs (1995). She also had a guest appearance on Frasier (1993) that same year.
She appeared in many successful films after that, such as Flirting with Disaster - Ein Unheil kommt selten allein (1996), Deep Impact (1998), Family Man (2000), Spanglish (2004), You Kill Me (2007) and most recently, she starred in the film Wen die Geister lieben (2008) opposite Greg Kinnear.
Tea was married to television commercial producer Neil Joseph Tardio Jr. from 1991 to 1995. In 1997 she married actor David Duchovny, with whom she has two children: Daughter West Duchovny (born April 24, 1999) and Son Kyd Miller Duchovny (born June 15, 2002).
