Mira Sorvino Biography

Search Dumb.com:

Dumb.com » » Celebrity Biographies » » Mira Sorvino

This section contains Mira Sorvino Biography

Mira Sorvino was born on September 28, 1967 in Tenafly, New Jersey to veteran actor Paul Sorvino. At first, Mira’s father discouraged her from pursuing a career in acting knowing how show business chews up new stars. Mira Sorvino is an outstanding scholar, pursuing a degree in Chinese and graduating as magna cum laude at Harvard University in 1989. Her thesis was a Hoopes Prize-winning topic based on China’s racial conflict, which Mira Sorvino wrote and researched during a year she spent in Beijing.

Mira Sorvino showed interest in acting at an early age, but only moved to New York in the late 80s. As she tried to get into the film industry, Mira Sorvino balanced a job as a waitress, auditioning on casting calls and working at Robert De Niro’s production company, “Tribeca”. In early 90s, Mira appeared in a few TV gigs until she landed a role on a 1993 independent movie, “Amongst Friends”, where she worked as an associate producer and female lead. Although this gangster movie did not hit big in the box office, Mira Sorvino’s performance led to two movies, another independent film, “Barcelona” in 1994 and a major Hollywood movie, “Quiz Show” featured the same year.

Although Mira Sorvino was an educated, articulate and extremely poised 29-year-old in real life, she portrayed a loopy hooker in Woody Allen’s 1995 film, “Mighty Aphrodite”, which earned her an Oscar award for Best Supporting Actress. After her first Oscar Award, Mira Sorvino played different roles in movies, such as “Norma Jean & Marilyn”, “Mimic”, and “The Replacement Killers”. However, it was only until she played Romy in the popular 1997 comedy film “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion”, alongside Lisa Kudrow, that Mira Sorvino became a name to remember.

Mira Sorvino dated director Quentin Tarantino for several years before becoming involved with a French actor, Oliver Martinez. In August 2003, she met actor Christopher Backus, which is 14 years her junior. They were engaged a month after their introduction and married a year later in a private civil ceremony at a California courthouse. They also had a hilltop ceremony in Capri, Italy. The couple then had a daughter, named Mattea Angel, in November 3 of that same year, and a son (Johnny Christopher King) on May 29, 2006.

Her intelligence is put to good use as Mira Sorvino is affiliated with Amensty International. She has been involved in campaigns calling for U.N. action in Darfur. Mira Sorvino is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and French.