Mira Sorvino Biography
Summary
"Mira Katherine Sorvino" (born September 28, 1967 in Tenafly, New Jersey) is an Oscar and Golden Globe Award-winning American actress.
Early life
Family
She is the daughter of Italian American character actor Paul Sorvino and Lorraine Davis, a drama therapist for Alzheimer's patients; she has two siblings, Michael, and Amanda, a playwright.
Education
Her father did not want his children to become actors; at a young age, however, Sorvino wrote and acted in backyard plays with her childhood friend Hope Davis, in theater productions at Dwight-Englewood High School and Harvard University, where she graduated "magna cum laude" in East Asian Studies. Her thesis was on anti-African sentiment in China. While at Harvard, she helped found the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones, one of Harvard's premier co-ed a cappella groups.
Career
Early 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 (... more) (... more) opened doors for her.
Rise to fame
After small but showy roles in Robert Redford's "Quiz Show" and Whit Stillman's "Barcelona," her portrayal of a squeaky-voiced, foul-mouthed prostitute in Woody Allen's 1995 film "Mighty Aphrodite" 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".
Personal life
Relationships
Sorvino is 5'10' tall. She dated director Quentin Tarantino for several years and was in a relationship with French actor Olivier Martinez.
She met actor Christopher Backus-fourteen years her junior-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'. She 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 3, 2004 and their son, Johnny Christopher King, was born on May 29, 2006.
Personality
She is affiliated with Amnesty International, and has been among the many Hollywood celebrities calling for United Nations action in Darfur.
She spent a year of study in Beijing while attending Harvard. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, and also speaks French.
2006 Apartment Eviction
In October of 2006, she was successfully evicted from her rent-stabilized one-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan near Central Park when her landlord claimed that it was not her primary residence. She told New York magazine, 'My landlords are selling the building, and they want the units cleared so they can turn it into a luxury rental, even though it's a one-bedroom. I mean, it's 600 square feet! No great digs, but I loved it and now it's probably going to go for $4,000 a month ... I'm a little bitter! Can you tell??
References in the scientific world
In honor of Sorvino's role as Dr. Susan Tyler, an entomologist who was investigating deadly insect mutations in the feature film, "Mimic", mirasorvone was the name given to a compound excreted by the sunburst diving beetle as a defensive mechanism.
Interviews
(interview, 10/24/05) at The Honolulu Advertiser
(interview, 10/02) at Interview Magazine
(interview, 4/02, Filmcritic.com)
(interview, 1/16/99, People Online)
(interview, 10/95) at MovieMaker magazine
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Mira Sorvino.
