Christina Ricci was born in Santa Monica, CA. Her family moved to Montclair, NJ, where she grew up attending Edgemont Elementary School, Glenfield Middle School, and Montclair High School as well as the Morristown-Beard School. After one year, she left the high school for the Professional Children's School in New York City.

A critic for the Bergen Record discovered Ricci at age eight in a school play at Edgemont School in Montclair, NJ. After this, she did several commercials starting at the age of six, until she finally got her big screen debut in "Mermaids" in 1990 as Cher's younger daughter. The young actress made enough of an impression to land more work; later she appeared in the video of the film's soundtrack "The Shoop Shoop Song." The following year, she starred as the morbidly precocious Wednesday Addams in the film adaptation of "The Addams Family." The role would help to establish Ricci as a character actress known for playing dark, unconventional roles -- she went on to play Wednesday again in the film's 1993 sequel, "Addams Family Values," which became another box office draw, and more screen time was provided for Ricci's performance as Wednesday.

Her next project, "Casper," was a success at the box office, being the year's eighth highest grossing film. She also starred in "Now and Then," a coming-of-age film about four 12-year-old girls and their friendship during the 1970s to the 1990s.

For her performance as Dede in 1998's "The Opposite of Sex," Ricci won acclaim and was nominated for a Golden Globe. Although she missed out on an Academy Award nomination, Entertainment Weekly honored her well-received performance as one of the "Worst Oscar Snubs Ever."

Later films included "Sleepy Hollow" and "Prozac Nation." She then starred opposite Charlize Theron in the film "Monster" during Theron's acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, she acknowledged Ricci, calling her the "unsung hero" of the film.

In February 2006 Ricci made a guest appearance as a paramedic in the ABC drama "Grey's Anatomy," for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She was a guest star for seven episodes in the last season of "Ally McBeal."

Regarding her 2007 film, "Black Snake Moan," Kevin Smith described the film as the best of the year thus far and called it Ricci's best performance.

She made her Broadway debut as Mandy in 2010's "Time Stands Still" and returned to the stage in an off-Broadway revival of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Most recently, she was cast in 2016's "Mother's Day."