Mira Sorvino

Mira Sorvino
Sorvino at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival
Born	Mira Katherine Sorvino September 28, 1967 (1967-09-28) (age 44) Tenafly, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1992–present
Spouse	Christopher Backus (2004-present; 3 children)

Mira Katherine Sorvino (born September 28, 1967) is an American actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Mighty Aphrodite (1995) and is also known for her role as Romy White in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.

Early life

Sorvino was born in Tenafly, New Jersey. 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.^[1][2] She has two siblings, Michael and Amanda. Sorvino is of Italian descent on her father's side.

At a young age, however, 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. She also helped found the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones, one of Harvard's co-ed a cappella groups.^{[citation needed]} Her solo piece was Yazoo's "Only You".^{[citation needed]}

Career

Sorvino spent the next three years in New York City, trying to make a name for herself as an actress.^{[citation needed]} 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^[3][4] opened doors for her.^{[citation needed]}

Sorvino at the 2000 Cannes Festival

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.

In recent years, Sorvino has starred in lower budget and independent films.^{[citation needed]} In 2005, she received a Golden Globe nomination for her role as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in the Lifetime film Human Trafficking.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[5]

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, early 2011), with Patti Lupone and Tammy Blanchard.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

In 2011, the feature film Union Square, co-written and directed by the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Award Winner, Nancy Savoca, is being premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. In it, Mira co-stars with Patti Lupone, Tammy Blanchard, Mike Doyle, Michael Rispoli and Daphne Rubin-Vega.^[6]

Personal life

Sorvino met actor Christopher Backus 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.^[7] They were engaged within a month. 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. Their daughter, Mattea Angel, was born on November 3, 2004^[8] and their son, Johnny Christopher King, was born on May 29, 2006.^[9] On June 22, 2009, Sorvino gave birth to a boy named Holden Paul Terry Backus, after a complicated pregnancy.^[10] In an interview with CBN.com about her role in "Like Dandelion Dust", Sorvino said that the trying hospital experience strengthened her faith, leading her to do "a lot of praying, and a lot of soul searching."^[11]

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.^[12]

In October 2006, she was 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?"^{[citation needed]}

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.^[13]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Swans Crossing	Sophia Eva McCormick De Castro	4 episodes
1993	The Obit Writer
1993	Amongst Friends	Laura
1993	Nyû Yôku no koppu	Maria
1994	Quiz Show	Sandra Goodwin
1994	Barcelona	Marta Ferrer
1994	The Dutch Master	Teresa
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 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress National Board of Review 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 - Best Supporting Actress
1995	Blue in the Face	Young Lady
1995	The Buccaneers	Conchita Closson
1996	Norma Jean & Marilyn	Marilyn Monroe	Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a Movie Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
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	The Replacement Killers	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
2000	The Great Gatsby	Daisy Buchanan
2001	The Grey Zone	Dina
2001	The Triumph of Love	The Princess/Phocion/Aspasie
2002	WiseGirls	Meg Kennedy
2002	Semana Santa	Maria Delgado
2003	Will & Grace	Diane	Episode "Last Ex To Brooklyn"
2003	Gods and Generals	Fanny Chamberlain
2004	The Final Cut	Delila
2005	Human Trafficking	Kate Morozov	Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
2006	Covert One: The Hades Factor	Rachel Russell
2007	Reservation Road	Ruth
2008	House	Dr. Cate Milton	Episode "Frozen"
2009	The Last Templar	Tess Chaykin
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 Trouble with Cali	The Balletmaster
2009	Sweet Flame	Sheila
2009	Attack on Leningrad	Kate Davis
2010	The Presence	The Woman
2010	Union Square		(A Nancy Savoca film set in New York City co-starring Patti LuPone and Tammy Blanchard.)

References

1. ^ "Mira Sorvino Biography (1967?-)". filmreference.com. http://www.filmreference.com/film/8/Mira-Sorvino.html. Retrieved 2007-12-31. 
2. ^ Maria Laurino (August 28, 1994). "FILM; The Many Screen Ethnicities of Mira Sorvino". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9903E6DE1239F93BA1575BC0A962958260. 
3. ^ James Berardinelli (1993). "Review: Amongst Friends". http://www.reelviews.net/movies/a/amongst.html. 
4. ^ Hal Hinson (August 13, 1993). "Amongst Friends". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/amongstfriendsrhinson_a0a841.htm. 
5. ^ Isabella Vosmikova (2008-01-24). "TV Addict Interview: Mira Sorvino Guest Stars on HOUSE". http://thetvaddict.com/2008/01/24/tv-addict-interview-mira-sorvino-guest-stars-on-house/. 
6. ^ [1]
7. ^ Alison Gee (May 30, 2006). "Mira Sorvino Has a Boy". People. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,1184237,00.html. 
8. ^ Mira Sorvino Gives Birth to a Girl - Pregnancy, Mira Sorvino : People.com
9. ^ "Mira Sorvino Has a Boy", Alison Gee, May 30, 2006, People
10. ^ "Mira Sorvino Welcomes Son Holden Paul Terry". July 13, 2009. http://celebritybabies.people.com/2009/07/13/mira-sorvino-welcomes-son-holden-paul-terry/. Retrieved July 15, 2011. 
11. ^ Mira Sorvino on Faith and Like Dandelion Dust: An in-depth interview, CBN.com.
12. ^ "Tavis Smiley Archives: Mira Sorvino". 2005-10-12. http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200510/20051012_sorvino.html. 
13. ^ Jerrold Meinwald; et al. (March 17, 1998). "Mirasorvone: A masked 20-ketopregnane from the defensive secretion of a diving beetle (Thermonectus marmoratus)". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences) 95 (6): 2733–2737. doi:10.1073/pnas.95.6.2733. OCLC 1607201. PMC 19637. PMID 9501158. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/95/6/2733. 

External links

• Mira Sorvino at the Internet Movie Database
• interview, 10/24/05 at The Honolulu Advertiser
• interview, 1/16/99, People Online
• interview, 10/95 at MovieMaker Magazine

Persondata
Name	Sorvino, Mira
Alternative names	Sorvino, Mira Katherine
Short description	Actress
Date of birth	September 28, 1967
Place of birth	Tenafly, New Jersey
Date of death
Place of death