Carla Gugino was born in Sarasota, Florida, to Carl Gugino, an orthodontist. She is of Italian (father) and English-Irish (mother) ancestry. Gugino moved with her mother to Paradise, California, when Carla was just five years old. During her childhood, they moved many times within the state. But she remained a straight-A student throughout high school and graduated as valedictorian.
A major modeling agency discovered Carla in San Diego and sent her to New York to begin a new career when she was 15. New York was more than she could handle at that young age, so she returned to LA in the summer, modeling and enrolling in an acting class at the suggestion of her aunt.
After appearing in Troop Beverly Hills (1989) and This Boy’s Life (1993), she received recognition for her starring roles as Ingrid Cortez in the Spy Kids trilogy (2001–2003), Rebecca Hutman in Night at the Museum (2006), Laurie Roberts in American Gangster (2007), Det. Karen Corelli in Righteous Kill (2008), Dr. Alex Friedman in Race to Witch Mountain (2009), Sally Jupiter in Watchmen (2009), Dr. Vera Gorski in Sucker Punch (2011), Amanda Popper in Mr. Popper’s Penguins (2011), Emma Gaines in San Andreas (2015), Jessie Burlingame in Gerald’s Game (2017), and Madeleine in Gunpowder Milkshake (2021).
Gugino also starred in the crime drama series Karen Sisco (2003), the science fiction series Threshold (2005–2006), the supernatural horror miniseries The Haunting of Hill House (2018), the crime drama series Jett (2019), and the supernatural horror miniseries The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020) and The Fall of the House of Usher (2023).
