Mira Sorvino (born September 28, 1967) is an Oscar-winning American actress, who has appeared in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion,At First Sight, Blue in the Face, Summer of Sam and Mighty Aphrodite.
Sorvino was born in Tenafly, New Jersey, and is the daughter of veteran actor Paul Sorvino (whose credits include Goodfellas, Oliver Stone's Nixon, and TV's Law & Order). She was raised in New Jersey and dedicated most of her childhood to academic studies rather than preparing for an acting career, as her father did not want his three children to become young movie stars.
Nevertheless, Sorvino acted in theater productions while in high school and later in university. She was at Harvard University, where she graduated "summa cum laude" in East Asian Studies. Her thesis was on anti-African sentiment in China (see Nanjing Anti-African protests). She is also a political activist affiliated with Amnesty International. She spent a year abroad in China, and speaks Mandarin Chinese. She also speaks French.
After graduating from college, she spent three years in New York trying to make a name for herself as an actress. Like so many other young actors, she worked at several jobs, waiting for an opportunity in show business. One of her jobs was as production assistant in a film company. When the 1993 picture Amongst Friends entered pre-production, she was hired as third assistant director. Soon she was promoted to casting director and to assistant producer, and was finally offered the lead role in the movie. Reviews of her first film performance were positive, which opened her doors for her following parts.
The breakthrough role in Sorvino's early career was her portrayal of a squeaky-voiced, foul-mouthed prostitute in Woody Allen's 1995 movie Mighty Aphrodite, for which she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Since then she has had offers for co-leading and supporting roles, some of them having become box-office hits, such as Romy and Michele's High School Reunion opposite Lisa Kudrow, and At First Sight with Val Kilmer.
Sorvino dated Quentin Tarantino for several years and more recently French actor Olivier Martinez. On June 11, 2004 she married Christopher Backus in a private ceremony; the marriage did not become public knowledge for more than two weeks. Backus is an aspiring actor, who has appeared on the television show Will & Grace, but the couple met when he took her order at the restaurant where he was working as a waiter.
