She received an Emmy Award nomination for her portrayal of Gloria Trillo on The Sopranos (2001–2004), appeared as Detective Carolyn Barek on Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2005–2006), and had recurring roles on GLOW (2018), Truth Be Told (2019–2020), and Tulsa King (2022).

[7] After making her professional debut in 1988 with a small part in the television miniseries The Fortunate Pilgrim, Sciorra landed her first major film role starring as Donna in True Love (1989), a romantic comedy-drama that won the Grand Jury Prize at that year's Sundance Festival.

[8] Her performance was praised by critics, with Janet Maslin of The New York Times commenting, "Ms. Sciorra, with her gentle beauty and hard-as-nails negotiating style, perfectly captures the mood of the film, and makes Donna fully and touchingly drawn".

[11] In 1991, after co-starring in buddy cop comedy The Hard Way, Sciorra garnered widespread attention with her portrayal of Angie Tucci in the acclaimed Spike Lee drama Jungle Fever,[12] which was shortlisted for the Palme d'Or at that year's Cannes Film Festival.

[16] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly felt that, with her portrayal of Claire Bartel, Sciorrra "brings her eye-of-the-storm serenity to the role of a passionately ordinary middle-class woman", giving an "accomplished performance",[17] while Variety said in their review, "A totally deglamorized Sciorra becomes unglued subtly and slowly, eliciting sympathy without begging for it".

Wonderful (all 1993); The Addiction (1995), her first of several projects with cult filmmaker Abel Ferrara; James Mangold's critically acclaimed, financially successful Cop Land (1997);[21][22] and the fantasy drama What Dreams May Come (1998).

[23] In 2001, Sciorra was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress for her "electric" portrayal of Gloria Trillo on HBO's The Sopranos,[24] a part described as "career changing" by Entertainment Weekly,[25] which she played intermittently until 2004.

Based on the true story of the longest Mafia trial in American history, the film was described as "gripping" by Stephen Holden of The New York Times, who also called Sciorra's performance "excellent".