Mira Sorvino is an American actress who was born on September 28, 1967, in Manhattan.
She is the daughter of Lorraine Davis, an actress turned drama therapist, and veteran character actor Paul Sorvino.
Sorvino graduated from Harvard University in 1990 with a major in East Asian area studies after spending an academic year abroad in China, where she learned to speak Mandarin.
She began her acting career in the mid-1990s and won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite.
Sorvino has continued to take a wide range of roles, including another stretch as Marilyn Monroe in Norma Jean & Marilyn, co-starring with another very intelligent and skilled young actress, Ashley Judd.
She has also acted in action and horror movies such as Mimic and The Replacement Killers.
Mira Sorvino early life
Sorvino was born to Lorraine Davis, an actress turned drama therapist, and veteran character actor Paul Sorvino.
Her father’s family were Italian immigrants. She grew up in New Jersey and attended Englewood High School there, where she wrote and acted in plays.
Sorvino excelled in high school and was accepted into Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude in 1989 with a major in East Asian area studies after spending an academic year abroad in China, where she learned to speak Mandarin.
After graduation, she moved to New York City and worked in various jobs before deciding to pursue an acting career.
Sorvino’s early life was focused on her education, and her father encouraged her to strive for an education instead of childhood acting careers.
She was an exceptional scholar and an avid reader.
Her thesis, a Hoopes Prize-winning thesis on racial conflict in China, written and researched during the year spent in Beijing, helped her fluency in Mandarin Chinese.
In terms of upbringing, Sorvino was raised in Tenafly, New Jersey, by her father, who was a tough-guy character actor.
She has two siblings, Amanda and Michael Sorvino.
Mira Sorvino husband
Sorvino’s husband is Christopher Backus, an American actor.
According to a report on People, they have been married since June 11, 2004, and have four children together.
The couple met at a friend’s charades party in August 2003 and got married in a private civil ceremony at the Santa Barbara, California courthouse, followed by a hilltop ceremony in Capri, Italy.
Christopher was born on October 30, 1981, making him 14 years younger than Mira Sorvino, who was born on September 28, 1967.
Mira Sorvino career
Sorvino Harvard University, graduating in 1990 with a major in East Asian area studies after spending an academic year abroad in China, where she learned to speak Mandarin.
She then moved to New York City and worked in various jobs before deciding to pursue an acting career.
Sorvino’s first film job was in the independent gangster movie Amongst Friends (1993).
She gained widespread recognition for her portrayal of a dim-witted but warmhearted prostitute in Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite (1995), for which she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Sorvino’s later career consisted largely of major roles in minor films.
She has also appeared in TV movies and series, including Human Trafficking (2005), and more recently, Condor (2018) and Modern Family (2009-2019).
Some of Sorvino’s notable works include Mighty Aphrodite (1995), Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996), Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997), Mimic (1997), The Replacement Killers (1998), Human Trafficking (2005), Hollywood (2019) and Sound of Freedom (2022).
In 2019, she was cast in the Netflix miniseries Hollywood as an actor whose career stalled out after a relationship with a studio head.
In 2022, she played a supporting role in Sound of Freedom, a film about human trafficking in South America.
