Aquino was born in Teaneck, New Jersey. She first acted in junior high school productions. At Harvard University, she majored in biology. In her final year, she realized she was spending more time acting than studying and so left to travel to New York to take acting classes, while working at a law firm. She stayed there for three years without landing any acting jobs, then traveled to Minneapolis, where she gained her first roles. In 1986, after two years of rejections, she enrolled at Yale University School of Drama, where she studied three years.
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, which won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1989. 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. She primarily has been in television roles, including ER and Everybody Loves Raymond.

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