A budding TV star, Jennifer Esposito opted to focus more exclusively on movies after landing one of the lead roles in Spike Lee's incendiary Summer of Sam (1999). A native New Yorker, Esposito trained at the Lee Strasberg Institute and worked on TV in the early 1990s, including a recurring role on New York Undercover. Following small roles in indie films Kiss Me, Guido (1997) and A Brother's Kiss (1997), Esposito gained prime time notice in 1997 as Michael J. Fox's sassy "Noo Yawk" secretary on ABC's hit sitcom Spin City. During her two seasons on the show, Esposito also appeared in Edward Burns' blue collar romance No Looking Back (1998), the teen slasher sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), and Spike Lee's basketball drama He Got Game (1998). After playing the more substantial dramatic part of Adrien Brody's punk singer girlfriend in Summer of Sam, however, Esposito left Spin City in 1999. Dividing critics and audiences over its dicey slice of New York City 1977 life and Lee's visual pyrotechnics, Summer of Sam failed at the box office. Esposito next appeared as one of Chris O'Donnell's ex-girlfriends in The Bachelor (1999). The millennial turnover found the beautiful rising starlet establishing herself as a versatile actress in such efforts as Dracula 2000 (2000) and Don't Say a Word (2001), and after appearing alongside Dana Carvey in the family comedy The Master of Disguise (2002), Esposito joined an impressive cast including Luis Guzman, William H. Macy and George Cloony for the caper comedy Welcome to Collinwood (also 2002).