‘The Penguin’ isn’t Cristin Milioti’s first HBO rodeo

Sofia Falcone is turning out to be a formidable foe, your favorite baddie’s least favorite baddie, on The Penguin. Here’s what you need to know about Cristin Milioti, who plays Sofia Falcone on the HBO series follow-up to Matt Reeves’ film.

The character is the daughter of the late Carmine Falcone, who was played by John Turturro in The Batman. (In flashbacks on The Penguin, however, Mark Strong plays Carmine.) Crystal Reed played Sofia Falcone on Gotham in Season 4. She is a DC Comics character, too, not an original creation, and sometimes goes by the alias The Hangman.

Other members of the Falcone family we meet on The Penguin include Michael Zegan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) as Alberto, and Scott Cohen (Gilmore Girls) as Luca. It’s Sofia, however, who becomes Oswald’s main adversary in The Penguin. She’s the female lead of the show without question.

Sofia is not Milioti’s only HBO star turn

Before taking center stage in Gotham’s most notorious crime family on The Penguin, Milioti was in a couple of episodes of The Sopranos as Catherine Sacrimoni. Given the Sopranos‘ clear influence on this series, that’s pretty cool. Zegan and Mike Kelly, who plays Falcone underboss Johnny Vitti on The Penguin, are Sopranos alumni as well.

Milioti also starred in the Max original satire Made For Love. If you didn’t catch Made for Love when it aired, I highly recommend it. It’s a dark comedy in which Milioti plays a woman kidnapped and controlled by her tech billionaire husband. Feminist dark comedy is one of her specialties. Outside of HBO, she’s also the lead of the Black Mirror episode “U.S.S. Callister,” the stand-alone Mythic Quest episode “A Dark Quiet Death,” and appeared in the second season of Fargo.

But you probably know her best as The Mother

Also known as Tracy, Milioti played the longed-for titular role in the final season of How I Met Your Mother. Or, comedy fans might recognize her from The Mindy Project, the short-lived sitcom A to Z, the severely underrated romantic comedy Palm Springs, or as the infamous Abby “I’m a very sexy baby” Flynn/Grossman on 30 Rock.

She’s also a former Broadway baby

And sometimes off-Broadway too! Milioti was nominated for a Tony Award in 2012 for her role as “Girl” in Once. She won a Grammy for Once, so the EGOT checklist has technically started. Other theatre credits include the David Bowie jukebox musical Lazarus with Michael C. Hall and Sofia Ann Caruso, the play Coram Boy, That Face, and Zoe Kazan’s After The Blast.

I doubt that The Penguin will have any musical moments, but here’s hoping! Maybe Sofia will sing a sinister lullaby or something. Pretty please?