Even those who fail to recognize her name would instantly know the lithe, slightly diminutive, and ethereally beautiful young actress Vera Farmiga by her distinctive look. While appearing in such television series as Law & Order, Trinity, UC: Undercover, and Touching Evil, Fermiga segued into movies in the early '00s. Her key roles include Lorena, Adrien Brody's unemployment counselor in the Greg Pritikin-helmed 2002 comedy Dummy and Allison in Eric Schaeffer's overlooked ensemble film Mind the Gap (2004), where she appeared alongside such notables as John Heard and the late Alan King. Farmiga joined the cast of Jonathan Demme's 2004 Manchurian Candidate remake, alongside Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, and Liev Schreiber; though not among the top-billed performers, the appearance served her career favorably. She fared much better (on all fronts) with a starring role in that same year's visceral indie addiction drama Down to the Bone, winner of the Special Jury Prize at Sundance, and a critical darling. As Irene, a coke-addled supermarket checker and mother of two, Farmiga drew raves from such sources as The New York Times and The Village Voice for, in one reviewer's words, "a pitch-perfect performance." (She also reeled in a Los Angeles Film Critics' Association award for that role — no small accomplishment, indeed.) 2006 brought with it a role as Teresa in Wayne Kramer's thriller Running Scared, and appearances in such features as Breaking and Entering, In Transit, Joshua, and the female lead in Martin Scorsese's The Departed.