Mira Sorvino

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mira Sorvino at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival

Mira Katherine Sorvino (born September 28, 1967 in Tenafly, New Jersey) is an Academy Award-winning American actress.

1 Biography
2 Selected filmography
3 Interviews
4 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

She is the daughter of Lorraine Davis, a drama therapist for Alzheimer's patients, and veteran Italian American actor Paul Sorvino; she has two siblings, Michael, and Amanda, a playwright.

Her father did not want his children to become actors; at a young age, however, Mira wrote and acted in backyard plays with childhood friend Hope Davis, in theater productions in high school, and later at Harvard University, where she graduated magna cum laude in East Asian Studies. Her thesis was on anti-African sentiment in China. While at Harvard, Sorvino help found the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones, one of Harvard's premier co-ed a cappella groups.

[edit] Career

Sorvino spent the next three years in New York City, trying to make a name for herself as an actress. When the 1993 film Amongst Friends entered pre-production, she was hired as third assistant director, then was promoted to casting director, then to assistant producer, and was finally offered a lead role. Positive reviews [1] [2] opened her doors for her.

It was Sorvino's portrayal of a squeaky-voiced, foul-mouthed prostitute in Woody Allen's 1995 film Mighty Aphrodite that won her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Other credits include Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (opposite Lisa Kudrow) and At First Sight with Val Kilmer. In recent years, she has appeared in lower budget and independent films. In 2005, she received a Golden Globe nomination for her role as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in the Lifetime film Human Trafficking.

[edit] Personal life

Sorvino dated director Quentin Tarantino for several years and was in a relationship with French actor Olivier Martinez.

She met actor Christopher Backus at a friend's charades party in August 2003: "He walked into the kitchen looking for silverware. We saw each other and something made us want to talk to each other more" Sorvino told People. They were engaged within a month. On June 11, 2004, they married in a private civil ceremony at a Santa Barbara, California courthouse, then later had a hilltop ceremony in Capri, Italy. Their daughter, Mattea Angel, was born on November 4, 2004 and their son, Johnny Christopher King, was born on May 29, 2006.

Sorvino is affiliated with Amnesty International, and has been among the many Hollywood celebrities calling for United Nations action in Darfur.

She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, and also speaks French.

[edit] Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role
2005	Human Trafficking	Kate Morozov
2004	The Final Cut	Delila
2002	The Triumph of Love	The Princess/Phocion/Aspasie
2002	Wise Girls	Meg Kennedy
1999	Summer of Sam	Dionna
1999	At First Sight	Amy Benic
1998	The Replacement Killers	Meg Coburn
1997	Mimic	Dr. Susan Tyler
1997	Romy and Michele's High School Reunion	Romy White
1996	Beautiful Girls	Sharon Cassidy
1996	Norma Jean & Marilyn	Marilyn Monroe
1995	Mighty Aphrodite	Linda Ash
1994	Barcelona	Marta Ferrer

Preceded by Dianne Wiest for Bullets Over Broadway	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress 1995 for Mighty Aphrodite	Succeeded by Juliette Binoche for The English Patient