Acting After Yale, Aquino spent the next five years based in New York. While there she appeared with
Kevin Spacey at
Playwrights Horizons and joined the
Circle Repertory Company. She appeared in
Wendy Wasserstein's
The Heidi Chronicles, Also that year, Aquino appeared in
Moonstruck (as Loretta's hairdresser) and
Working Girl (as
Melanie Griffith's secretary at the end of the film), her first film roles. In 1991, she was cast as one of the leads in the series
Brooklyn Bridge. After the show was renewed for a second season, Aquino moved to California. In 1995, Aquino was nominated for a
Screen Actors Guild Award for portraying Dr. Joanna "Joey" Diamond in
Picket Fences. In 2005, she appeared in Wasserstein's
Third in an
off-Broadway production at the
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Aquino also appeared off-Broadway at the
59E59 Theaters in
Secrets of the Trade by
Jonathan Tolins. In 2013, Aquino was cast as the witch Donna in the
season 2 of
Being Human. Later this year, Aquino was cast in the pilot
Divorce: A Love Story; however, the role was recast when the producers decided that she looked too young to play the mother of Jason Jones, who was portrayed by an actor 16 years younger than she was. Aquino played college President Dalley in
The Lazarus Effect (2015), co-starring
Sarah Bolger,
Mark Duplass, and
Olivia Wilde. Aquino starred in Amazon Studios' television series
Bosch as Lieutenant Grace Billets. The series was renewed for a seventh and final season on February 13, 2020.
SAG and SAG-AFTRA She joined the
Screen Actors Guild in 1987 and was named the co-secretary-treasurer on September 24, 2009. She was elected for a second term in 2011, without opposition, and after being elected the first secretary-treasurer of the newly merged
SAG-AFTRA served until August 2015. She had previously served two terms as first vice president of the Screen Actors Guild. ==Personal life==