Mastrogiacomo made her film debut as Roxie in the 1987 fantasy comedy film
Harry and the Hendersons. She next starred as the lead female character, Ginny, in
Richard Haines's 1989 sci-fi comedy
Space Avenger, an independent film which debuted at the
Toronto Film Festival and parodied the
Alien franchise and other sci-fi horror films like
The Hidden. Mastrogiacomo's performance impressed
Martin Scorsese, who decided to cast her in his hit 1990 gangster film
Goodfellas after watching the film. In that film she portrayed Janice Rossi,
Ray Liotta's mistress, and delivered a performance praised for its passionate and realistic delivery. Her performance is praised as "vivid and immediate", which has not been reflected in retrospectives and oral histories of the film because of her early death. Also in 1990, Mastrogiacomo starred in the 1990 musical television film
An East Side Story. In 1991 she portrayed Louise in
Spike Lee's
Jungle Fever, one of several actors who had also appeared in
Goodfellas.
Variety critic Tony Scott wrote that "Mastrogiacomo excels as Maggie's loyal friend Gloria" in the
USA Network's 1995 television film
Tall, Dark, and Deadly. In 2000, she played the role of Jenny Uphouse in the
X-Files episode "
Chimera", playing a character having an affair with the sheriff as a form of revenge against middle-class housewife snobbery. ==Personal life==