Leah Marie Remini (born June 15, 1970) is an American actress and comedian. She is best known for her role as Carrie Heffernan on The King of Queens (1998–2007). Remini will release her memoir Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology on November 3, 2015.

Biography

Remini met her husband in 1996 at a Cuban restaurant. He has three sons from previous relationships. In January 2003, Remini announced their engagement; they were married on July 19, 2003. She gave birth to their daughter Sofia in 2004.


Religious beliefs
Since age 9, Remini was a member of the Church of Scientology. In December 2005, she helped promote the gala opening of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights Psychiatry: An Industry of Death museum on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Responding to criticism of Scientology during an interview on CNN, Remini said:


"If somebody is going to get turned off about something because of what they read or heard, then that person's not smart enough to even enter a church. If you're really against something, then know what you're against."

In July 2013, Remini left the Church of Scientology owing to policies that forbid members from questioning the management of church leader David Miscavige, which she believed was corrupt; the reported abuse of members of its Sea Org religious order; its policy of "disconnection"; and its practice of branding those who have left the church of their own accord as "Suppressive Persons." According to former high-ranking Sea Org member Mike Rinder, Remini's problems with the Church began when she asked about the whereabouts of Miscavige's wife Shelly at the 2006 wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, and was told profanely that she lacked the rank to do so. Remini then filed a "knowledge report" that was critical of Miscavige, Cruise, and other senior Scientology members and behavior on the part of members that was inconsistent with Church rules. She was subsequently "subjected to years of 'interrogations' and 'thought modification'" that led to her being blacklisted within the Church, while fellow parishioners with whom she had been friends for decades wrote internal reports about her, resulting in a Church investigation into her family. During a September 9, 2013, appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Remini discussed her departure from the Church and the loss of friends who are still in the Church and, according to Remini, are not permitted to have contact with her.

Following her departure from the Church, she publicly expressed her appreciation for those who supported her departure. Remini's sister, Nicole, who had earlier left the Church herself, revealed that the rest of their family left the Church along with her to avoid being split up by the Church's disconnection policy.

Writer/director Paul Haggis, who had previously been the most famous person to publicly disavow Scientology, wrote an open letter, published by The Hollywood Reporter, thanking Remini for standing by him after he left the Church and praised her "enormous amount of integrity and compassion."

In August 2013, it was disclosed that Remini had filed a missing-person report with the Los Angeles Police Department concerning the disappearance of Shelly Miscavige. After the report was filed, the Los Angeles Police Department looked into the matter, met with Shelly Miscavige in person and closed the missing-person investigation and said Remini's report was "unfounded". The Church said in a statement that the whole affair was simply harassment and a publicity stunt for the actress.

In October 2013 it was reported that Remini had been subpoenaed to testify in a Comal County, Texas, lawsuit against the Church of Scientology and its leader David Miscavige regarding acts of alleged harassment and surveillance against the wife of a former member, Monique Rathbun (who was married to ex-Scientology executive Marty Rathbun). Rathbun's attorney, Ray Jeffery, says he wants Remini, a former Scientologist, to give a deposition in the hopes she could testify that Miscavige has vast influence over the operations of the church and had to have known about the alleged harassment.

Remini will release her memoir Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology November 3rd, 2015.