Peter Facinelli Biography

Peter Facinelli (pronounced FAH-chin-elly; born November 26, 1973) is an American actor and producer. He became known as the star of Fox's 2002 television series Fastlane. He plays Dr. Carlisle Cullen in the film adaptations of the Twilight series. He is also well known for his role as Mike Dexter in the film Can't Hardly Wait. He is currently a regular on the television series Nurse Jackie portraying the role of Dr. Fitch "Coop" Cooper.

Early life

Facinelli grew up in Ozone Park, Queens, the son of Italian immigrants Bruna (née Reich), a homemaker, and Pierino Facinelli, a waiter. His parents are from the Val di Non valley, which is located in Trentino, Northern Italy. His father is from Revò, while his mother is from Spormaggiore. He was raised Roman Catholic and attended St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows, New York. He studied acting at New York University, as well as at the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School in New York City; his teachers there included William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman, Giancarlo Esposito and Camryn Manheim.

Career

Facinelli made his feature film debut in Rebecca Miller's Angela in 1995 and came to the attention of critics in the TV-movie The Price of Love later that year. In 1996, Facinelli played opposite his then-future wife Jennie Garth in An Unfinished Affair. Other TV roles followed, including a part in After Jimmy (1996) and a college dropout in Calm at Sunset. Facinelli co-starred with Amanda Peet and Michael Vartan in the 1997 AIDS-themed drama Touch Me (1997) and co-starred as a high school student in two 1998 features with Ethan Embry and Breckin Meyer, Dancer, Texas Pop. 81, and Can't Hardly Wait, which starred Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Facinelli appeared in the sci-fi film Supernova starring James Spader in 2000. He made appearances in Riding in Cars with Boys in 2001 and The Scorpion King in 2002, followed by a leading role in the Fox drama Fastlane. Facinelli had a recurring role in the HBO series Six Feet Under in 2004 and a role in the FX original series Damages beginning in 2007. Facinelli starred in Hollow Man 2 with Christian Slater. It was released direct-to-video in May 2006.

After wrapping up Finding Amanda with Matthew Broderick, Facinelli played Carlisle Cullen in the film adaptation of Twilight, based on the book by Stephenie Meyer. According to an interview, "I almost didn't read for Twilight. My agent said, "Do you want to do a vampire movie?" And I was like, "No." I was totally thinking blood and guts and bats in caves, like some kind of horror movie. They literally talked me into reading the book and I actually enjoyed the book a lot." Facinelli continued his portrayal in the sequels of the film, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.

He stars as Dr. Fitch Cooper in the Showtime dark comedy series Nurse Jackie.

He is the founder of the production company Facinelli Films. Their first feature film, Loosies, which was written entirely by Facinelli, was filmed in 2011. He starred in the film, which is a story of a New York pickpocket that being produced by Verdi Corrente Productions. In 2011 he also wrote and produced the Hallmark Channel telefilm Accidentally In Love which starred his then-wife Jennie Garth.

Personal life

Facinelli met actress Jennie Garth on the set of An Unfinished Affair in 1995. Facinelli and Garth married on January 20, 2001 in a traditional Roman Catholic ceremony. They have three daughters: Luca Bella (born June 30, 1997), Lola Ray (born December 6, 2002), and Fiona Eve (born September 30, 2006). In March 2012, Facinelli filed for divorce from Garth. The divorce was finalized in June 2013.

Facinelli has been dating actress Jaimie Alexander since late 2012.

Filmography

Film and Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	'	Brett	TV
	Angela	Lucifer
	Law & Order	Shane Sutter	1 episode
1996	Calm at Sunset	James Pfeiffer	TV
	After Jimmy	Jimmy Stapp	TV
	Foxfire	Ethan Bixby
	'	Rick Connor	TV
1997	Touch Me	Bail
1998	Telling You	Phil Fazzulo
	Welcome to Hollywood	Actor
	Can't Hardly Wait	Mike Dexter
	Dancer, Texas Pop. 81	Terrell Lee Lusk
1999	Blue Ridge Fall	Danny Shepherd
	'	Bob Walker
2000	Honest	Daniel Wheaton
	Ropewalk	Charlie
	Supernova	Karl Larson
2001	Riding in Cars with Boys	Tommy Butcher
	Tempted	Jimmy Mulate
	Stealing Time	Alec Nichols
2002" 2003	Fastlane	Donovan 'Van' Ray	TV Series with Tiffani Thiessen
2002	'	Takmet
2003" 2005	Six Feet Under	Jimmy	Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2005)
2005	'	Danny
	Chloe
	Enfants terribles	Curtis
2006	Hollow Man 2	Det. Frank Turner	Video
	Touch the Top of the World	Erik Weihenmayer	TV
	Arc	Paris Pritchert	Indie Gathering Award for Best Actor
2007	Damages	Gregory Malina	TV
	Lily	The Man
	That Guy	Jack
	Battle Olympia	Possessed Office High Jumper
2008	Finding Amanda	Greg
	Reaper	Jesus
	Twilight	Dr. Carlisle Cullen
2009	'	Dr. Carlisle Cullen
2009"present	Nurse Jackie	Dr. Fitch "Coop" Cooper
2010	'	Dr. Carlisle Cullen
2011	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1	Dr. Carlisle Cullen
	Accidentally in Love	Producer & Writer	Hallmark TV Film
2012	Loosies	Bobby
	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2	Dr. Carlisle Cullen
2013	Freezer	Sam	Post-production
	Gallows Hill	David Reynolds	Post-production
	Glee	Funny Girl director	Guest role
2014	The Absinthe Drinkers	Lucciola	On hold