He has appeared in over sixty movies, and is well known for his ability to change both his demeanour and physique.

Turturro was born in Brooklyn, New York to an Italian-American Roman Catholic family. He completed his MFA at the Yale School of Drama. He worked as an extra in Raging Bull (1980).

John Turturro created the title role of John Patrick Shanley's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea at the Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in 1983. He repeated it the following year off-Broadway and won an Obie Award.

Spike Lee liked Turturro's performance in Five Corners so much that he chose to cast him in Do the Right Thing, in which he played the explosive racist Pino. This movie initiated a long-standing collaboration between the famous director and John Turturro.

A versatile actor comfortable with both comedy and drama, Turturro also had an extended collaboration with the Coen Brothers, appearing in their films The Big Lebowski, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, and most recently, O Brother, Where Art Thou?. He also appeared as a severely disturbed psychiatric patient of Jack Nicholson's in Anger Management. Turturro is also an occasional guest star on Monk as Adrian's eccentric brother, Ambrose Monk.

Turturro was the producer, director and actor of the film Illuminata (1999), which also starred his wife Katherine Borowitz.

Actress Aida Turturro is John Turturro's cousin.

He has two children, Amedeo Turturro and Diego Turturro born in July 1990 and December 2000, respectively. Turturro is Catholic and his wife is Jewish.

    * Despite his many acclaimed performances, Turturro has never been nominated for an Academy Award.

    * Turturro's last name is from the Italian tartaruga meaning "turtle" a fact slyly alluded to in the Monk episode "Mr. Monk Goes Home Again" when Ambrose Monk (Turturro) tells Adrian's assistant Natalie (Traylor Howard) that their father named him Ambrose after his beloved pet turtle.