Elizabeth Téa Pantaleoni was born in New York, on February 25, 1966. Her father, Anthony Pantaleoni, was a corporate lawyer, and her mother, Emily Patterson, was a dietitian and nutritionist. She is of Italian (from a paternal great-great-grandfather), Polish, English, Scottish, Irish, and German descent. Téa attended but did not complete studies at Sarah Lawrence College. She started out in acting as Lisa DiNapoli in Santa Barbara (1984) in 1989 and followed up with small roles in Dans la peau d'une blonde (1991) and Une équipe hors du commun (1992).
In 1992 she starred in the short-lived sitcom Flying Blind (1992). In 1994 she appeared in Wyatt Earp (1994) opposite Kevin Costner and La comtesse de Brooklyn (1994) opposite D.W. Moffett. In 1995 she starred opposite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in the popular film Bad Boys (1995). She also had a guest appearance on Frasier (1993) that same year.
She appeared in many successful films after that, such as Flirter avec les embrouilles (1996), Deep Impact (1998), Family Man (2000), Spanglish (2004), You Kill Me (2007) and most recently, she starred in the film La ville fantôme (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 Madelaine West Duchovny (born April 24, 1999) and Son Kyd Miller Duchovny (born June 15, 2002).
