Carmine Giovinazzo Biography

Carmine Dominick Giovinazzo (born August 24, 1973) is an American actor and singer known for his role as Detective Danny Messer in CSI: NY.

Early life

Giovinazzo was born and raised in Staten Island, New York, the son of Nancy and Dominick Giovinazzo. He comes from a family of policemen and has Italian, English, Native American, and Norwegian ancestry. Growing up on Staten Island, Giovinazzo was an avid athlete; though he played many different sports, baseball and roller hockey were his preferences. He graduated from Port Richmond High School in 1991 and attended Wagner College. He had hoped to become a professional baseball player, but a serious back injury dashed his career plans, so, with the support of his family, he turned to acting. As a child, Giovinazzo participated in making short films, but remembers no particular time when he had the idea to start acting.

Career

In 1997, Giovinazzo moved to Los Angeles, California, Not long after, he successfully landed his first Hollywood role in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer pilot, in which his character was the show's first on-screen victim. Afterwards, he appeared in numerous guest-starring roles on television and in film, including Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss, For Love of the Game, The Big Brass Ring, and Black Hawk Down. He was also cast as one of the stars of the short-lived UPN sitcom Shasta McNasty. Other films in which he had starring roles include In Enemy Hands with William H. Macy, and Players with Freddy Rodriguez and Peter Dobson. He played Tony Galper, the victim in "Columbo Likes the Nightlife", the final episode of the TV series Columbo.

Giovinazzo was cast as forensic scientist Danny Messer on the hit TV series CSI: NY. Giovinazzo is the first actor to appear in all three CSI series; his CSI: NY character was introduced in the CSI: Miami episode "MIA/NYC NonStop" (along with the other cast members of CSI: NY) and he guest-starred in the third season of the original Las Vegas-based CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as a street racer named Thumpy G in the episode "Revenge is Best Served Cold", though it is never specified that this guest spot was in any way related to his character on CSI: NY. Giovinazzo penned the sixth season vampire-themed episode "Sanguine Love", joining series leads Melina Kanakaredes and Gary Sinise, who have also written episodes for the series.

Personal life

Giovinazzo plays the guitar, writes songs and poems, and updates his own Wikipedia page in his spare time. He is also a painter, mostly in oils, and one of his paintings appeared in the "Tri-Borough" episode of CSI: NY. He is currently a lead vocalist in his band "Ceesau". They released one album in 2008, Era of the Exposed, with five songs. The song "Tear To Spare", written by Giovinazzo, was played in the CSI: NY sixth season episode "Sanguine Love".

He is a cousin of Vincent Giovinazzo, Buddy Giovinazzo, Michael "Big Mean Schkeen" Giovinazzo, Rick Giovinazzo, and Larry Romano.

Giovinazzo married actress Vanessa Marcil on July 11, 2010 in a private ceremony in New York City. In June 2011 they announced they were expecting, but in December 2011, Giovinazzo announced via Twitter that Vanessa had suffered a miscarriage, her second that year.

On August 22, 2012, it was announced that his wife Vanessa Marcil had filed for divorce in L.A. County Superior Court, citing "irreconcilable differences".

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Conception	Billy	Film short
1996	No Way Home	Frankie Hamm	Film
1997	Buffy the Vampire Slayer	Christopher Boal	Episode 1.01 "Welcome to the Hellmouth"
1997	Pacific Blue	Cody Fisher	Episode 3.08 "Matters of the Heart"
1998	Fallen Arches	Frankie Romano	Film
1998	Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss	Gundy	Film
1999	The Big Brass Ring	Young Billy	Film
1999	Providence	Kit	Episode 1.17 "Heaven Can Wait"
1999	For Love of the Game	Ken Strout	Film
1999	Shasta McNasty	Scott	All 22 episodes
2000	Terror Tract	Frank Sarno	Film ("Nightmare" segment)
2001	The Learning Curve	Paul Cleveland	Film
2001	Black Hawk Down	Goodale	Film
2002	Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie	T-Bone	TV movie
2002	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Thumpy G	Episode 3.01 "Revenge is Best Served Cold"
2003	Columbo	Tony Galper	Episode 13.05 "Columbo Likes the Nightlife"
2004	In Enemy Hands	Buck Cooper	Film
2004	CSI: Miami	Danny Messer	Episode 2.23 "MIA/NYC NonStop"
2004"2013	CSI: NY	Danny Messer	All 197 episodes
2008	This Is Not a Test	Trey	Film
2013	Duke	Dare	Film (post-production)