Venito has made a career largely of playing an Italian stereotype, both in drama and in comedies. At the beginning of his career, television appearances came infrequently. In 1988, he appeared in an episode of The Equalizer, in 1992 in an episode of Here and Now, in 1995 in an episode of The Cosby Mysteries and in 1996 in an episode of New York Undercover. He appeared in the TV movie Witness to the Mob about Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, who was played by Nicholas Turturro.
He next appeared as a regular in extremely short-lived sitcom Living in Captivity on Fox in 1998. The show was about the ins and outs of a gated community inCalifornia. Venito starred as Carmine Santucci, an auto parts mogul. He next appeared on a 2002 episode of short-lived Dennis Leary show The Job and in six episodes of NYPD Blue as Julian Pisano. He appeared in a Third Watch, a Hack, and as two different characters in two early 2000s Law & Order episodes, one of them as a mobster in Everybody Loves Raimondo’s, an episode I think I’ve seen half a dozen times. He started to work more regularly in the 2000s, showing up in a The Practice, and in two The Jurys in 2004, and in two episodes of Blind Justice in 2005, one as his NYPD Blue character.
In 2006, he started a nine episode run in Sopranos as James “Murmur” Zancone. Murmur was a friend and sponsor of Christopher and helps kidnap screenwriter J.T. Dolan. He’s perhaps best remembered for helping to stealHollywoodgift baskets, wrestling them away from actors Ben Kingsley and Lauren Bacall. In 2006, he also appeared in three episodes of more successful Dennis Leary show Rescue Me and in the pilot of The Black Donnellys. In 2007, he was in two episodes of Queens Supreme and co-starred in the nine episodes aired of Knights of Prosperity, an ABC sitcom in which the title friends were plotting to rob Mick Jagger (the original title was Let’s Rob Mick Jagger. Venito portrayed Francis “Squatch” Squacieri, next to Donal Logue and Sofia Vergara. He was also in a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in the same year and in an episode of Flight of the Conchords as John, an incompetent mugger who later befriends Jemaine, both of whom were abandoned by their partners.
In 2008, Venito was in single episodes of Life on Mars and Ugly Betty. In 2009 he reprised his Flight on the Conchords mugger role in another episode. In 2010 he appeared in a Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and showed up in two episodes of Bored to Death as a mounted policeman who hires Jonathan to steal back some incriminating photos of him before the police raid an S&M club. He most recently appeared in two episodes of short-lived but well-reviewed FX show Lights Out and in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm as the not-otherwise-named one armed man. He evades Larry several times during the episode, as no one else believes in his existence.
Television, the Drug of the Nation 