Mira Sorvino Biography

Mira Katherine Sorvino (born September 28, 1967) is an American actress. She came to prominence after winning the Academy Award and Golden Globe for best supporting actress for her performance in Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite (1995). She is also known for her roles in the films Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997), Mimic (1997), The Replacement Killers (1998), Summer of Sam (1999), and more recently Like Dandelion Dust (2009). She received Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for her role in Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996), and a Golden Globe nomination for her role in Human Trafficking (2005).

Early life

Sorvino was born in Manhattan, New York. Her mother, Lorraine Ruth Davis, is a drama therapist for Alzheimer's disease patients and a former actress, and her father, Paul Sorvino, is a character actor and director. She has two siblings, Michael and Amanda. Sorvino is of Italian descent on her father's side.

When she was young, Sorvino wrote and acted in backyard plays with her childhood friend Hope Davis, in theater productions at Dwight-Englewood School, and at Harvard University, where she graduated magna cum laude in East Asian Studies in 1989. She also helped found the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones, one of Harvard's co-ed a cappella groups in 1985. Her solo piece was Yazoo's "Only You".

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 opened doors for her.

After small roles in Robert Redford's Quiz Show and Whit Stillman's Barcelona, she was cast in the 1995 Woody Allen film Mighty Aphrodite. Her portrayal of a happy-go-lucky prostitute made her a star, winning her an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. Other credits include Romy and Michele's High School Reunion alongside Lisa Kudrow, At First Sight with Val Kilmer, and Summer of Sam from Spike Lee. She portrayed Marilyn Monroe for the 1996 HBO film Norma Jean & Marilyn, and the lead role in the 1997 horror movie Mimic.

In recent years, Sorvino has starred 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.

In February 2008, she guest starred in the "Frozen" episode of the medical television drama House. There was talk of making her character, psychiatrist Cate Milton, a recurring character; however, the writers strike put a temporary freeze on such discussions.

More recently, she starred in Attack on Leningrad (2009), Multiple Sarcasms (2010) alongside Timothy Hutton and Stockard Channing, and Nancy Savoca's Union Square (release date, July 2012), with Patti Lupone and Tammy Blanchard.

She was considered for the role of video game heroine Jill Valentine in Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) before the role was played by British actress Sienna Guillory.

In 2012, the feature film Union Square, co-written and directed by the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Award Winner, Nancy Savoca, was premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. In it, Mira co-stars with Patti Lupone, Tammy Blanchard, Mike Doyle, Michael Rispoli and Daphne Rubin-Vega. The movie opened on July 13, 2012 to packed houses in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto, garnering notice and acclaim from major print sources such as the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, to online sources like Newsday, Yahoo Voices and the Pasadena Sun.

In 2012, Mira Sorvino playeed the Elaine, the mother of the lead, in the film adaptation of Wendy Mass's popular children's book Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life.

Personal life

Sorvino met actor Christopher Backus at a friend's charades party in August 2003. On June 11, 2004, they married in a private civil ceremony at the Santa Barbara, California courthouse, then later had a hilltop ceremony in Capri, Italy. The couple have four children: daughters Mattea Angel (born 2004) and Lucia (born 2012) and sons Johnny Christopher King (born 2006) and Holden Paul Terry Backus (born 2009).

She has been affiliated with Amnesty International since 2004, and, in 2006, was honored with Amnesty International's Artist of Conscience Award given to those who have displayed longstanding philanthropic and humanist efforts. Sorvino has been a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador to Combat Human Trafficking, since 2009 through 2012, and has lobbied the Congress to abolish human trafficking in Darfur.

In honor of Sorvino's role as Dr. Susan Tyler, an entomologist who was investigating deadly insect mutations in the feature film Mimic, a compound excreted by the sunburst diving beetle as a defensive mechanism was named "mirasorvone" by Thomas Eisner.^,

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	'		Short film
1993	Amongst Friends	Laura
1993	Nyû Yôku no koppu	Maria
1994	Quiz Show	Sandra Goodwin
1994	Barcelona	Marta Ferrer
1994	'	Teresa	Short film
1995	Mighty Aphrodite	Linda Ash	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress (2nd place) National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress (2nd place) New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated"?BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Nominated"?Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
1995	Blue in the Face	Young Lady
1996	Beautiful Girls	Sharon Cassidy
1996	Tales of Erotica	Teresa	Segment "The Dutch Master"
1996	Sweet Nothing	Monika
1996	Tarantella	Diane
1997	Romy and Michele's High School Reunion	Romy White	Nominated"?MTV Movie Award for Best Dance Sequence
1997	Mimic	Dr. Susan Tyler	Nominated"?Saturn Award for Best Actress
1998	'	Meg Coburn
1998	Lulu on the Bridge	Celia Burns
1998	Too Tired to Die	Death/Jean
1998	Free Money	Agent Karen Polarski
1999	At First Sight	Amy Benic
1999	Summer of Sam	Dionna
2001	'	Dina
2001	'	The Princess
2002	WiseGirls	Meg Kennedy
2002	Semana santa	Maria Delgado
2003	Gods and Generals	Fanny Chamberlain
2004	'	Delila
2006	Covert One: The Hades Factor	Randi Russell
2007	Reservation Road	Ruth
2009	Multiple Sarcasms	Cari
2009	Like Dandelion Dust	Wendy Porter	New York VisionFest Award for Acting - Female Lead Sonoma Valley Film Festival Award for Best Actress San Diego Film Festival Award for Best Actress
2009	'	The Balletmaster
2009	Sweet Flame	Sheila
2009	Attack on Leningrad	Kate Davis
2010	'	The Woman
2011	Angels Crest	Angie
2012	Union Square	Lucy
2012	Perfect Sisters	Linda
2012	Smitty	Amanda
2012	Trade of Innocents	Claire Becker	Nominated"?Milan International Film Festival Award for Best Actress
2013	Space Warriors	Sally Hawkins

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Swans Crossing	Sophia Eva McCormick De Castro	6 episodes
1994	Parallel Lives	Matty Derosa	Television movie
1995	'	Conchita Closson	5 episodes
1996	Norma Jean & Marilyn	Marilyn Monroe	Television movie Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Miniseries or Television Film Nominated"?Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
2000	'	Daisy Buchanan	Television movie
2003	Will & Grace	Diane	Episode "Last Ex To Brooklyn"
2005	Human Trafficking	Kate Morozov	Television film Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Miniseries or Television Film
2008	House	Dr. Cate Milton	Episode "Frozen"
2009	'	Tess Chaykin	Television movie
2012	Finding Mrs. Claus	Mrs. Claus	Television movie