Mira Sorvino's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) The Last Templar Tess Chaykin Human Trafficking Kate Morozov Swans Crossing Sophia Eva … The Buccaneers (UK) Conchita Cl…

Main Movie Roles 2010 - Multiple Sarcasms 2009 - Attack On Leningrad 2007 - Reservation Road 2004 - The Final Cut 2003 - Gods and Generals 2001 - The Grey Zone 2000 - Bamboozled 1999 - Summer of Sam 1999 - At First Sight 1998 - Free Money 1998 - The Replacement Killers 1997 - Romy and Michele's High School Reunion 1997 - Mimic 1996 - Beautiful Girls 1995 - Mighty Aphrodite 1995 - Blue in the Face 1994 - Quiz Show 1994 - Barcelona 1985 - The Stuff

BIOGRAPHY:

Mira Sorvino was born in Tenafly, an affluent northern New Jersey suburb, in 1967. She is the daughter of veteran character actor Paul Sorvino, who discouraged her from becoming an actor, as he knew how the industry often chews up young stars. The young Sorvino was intelligent, an avid reader and an exceptional scholar. She attended Harvard, majoring in Chinese, graduating magna cum laude in 1989, largely on the strength of her thesis, a Hoopes Prize-winning thesis on racial conflict in China, written and researched during the year spent in Beijing, which helped her fluency in Mandarin Chinese.

However, she showed interest in a career in acting from an early age, and moved to New York City to try her hand in the City's film industry, waitressing, auditioning and working at the Tribeca production company of Robert De Niro. She succeeded in getting a little TV work in the early 90s, but got her first film job in the independent gangster movie Amongst Friends (1993), on which she worked her way up the ladder behind the camera to eventually associate-produce the film, and, more importantly, was eventually cast as the female lead. The movie was forgettable, but Sorvino's performance was not, and attracted enough buzz to get her cast in two more movies, one a more prominent indie, Barcelona (1994), the other her first Hollywood feature, Quiz Show (1994), and her skillful performances brought her yet more attention.

An exceptionally poised and articulate young woman, she may have seemed inappropriate to play a loopy hooker, but Woody Allen took the chance, and her magnificent performance as the female lead in his Mighty Aphrodite (1995) proved her range as a performer and earned her an Oscar (at the tender age of 29) for best supporting actress.

Since winning the Oscar, Sorvino has continued to take a wide range of roles, including another stretch as Marilyn Monroe in Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996) (TV), co-starring with another very intelligent and skilled young actress, Ashley Judd. Forays into action and horror, such as 1997's Mimic (1997) and 1998's The Replacement Killers (1998) show that Sorvino is not above being playful in the film roles she chooses.

However, what forever cemented her role in popular culture was her performance as charmingly dopey California beach girl Romy in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997), in which she and co-star Lisa Kudrow utter one hilarious absurdity after another.

Sorvino married Christopher Backus in June 2004, and the couple had daughter Mattea in November 2004.


TRIVIA:

• Graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1989, with a BA in Chinese (East Asian Languages and Civilizations). Her honors thesis: "Anti-Africanism in the People's Republic of China" about the Nanjing Anti-African protests, which won the Harvard Hoopes Prize for writing.
• Member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997.
• Has a younger brother named 'Michael Sorvino' (qv) and a younger sister named 'Amanda Sorvino' (qv).
• According to 'Larry Cohen (I)' (qv) on the DVD commentary for _The Stuff (1985)_ (qv), Mira Sorvino came to the set of the film to visit her father, 'Paul Sorvino' (qv), and was given a small part in the film. She plays one of the yellow suited "stuffies" at the plant her father's character attacks. Larry Cohen had forgotten Sorvino appeared in the film until he was talking with her and 'Quentin Tarantino' (qv), whom she was dating, and mentioned that he had directed her father in the film. Mira then reminded Cohen that she actually appeared in the film.
• Niece of 'Bill Sorvino' (qv).
• (1999-2002) Dated 'Olivier Martinez (I)' (qv).
• Gave birth to daughter Mattea Angel, with husband 'Christopher Backus' (qv), on November 3, 2004 in Los Angeles.
• (Spring 2003) Met her husband at a Charades party held by stylist Samantha McMillen.