| Mira Sorvino  Born: 28-Sep-1967
Birthplace: Tenafly, NJ
Gender: Female
Religion: Atheist [1]
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Mighty Aphrodite As a young girl, Mira Sorvino read The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, and became fascinated with China. She started hanging out in Chinatown, and soon picked up the Mandarin language from Chinese-American girlfriends. She was a straight-A student in high school, and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard with a degree in East Asian Studies. Her thesis was on the Nanjing Anti-African protests. She now speaks Mandarin fluently, and though Chow Yun-Fat's native language is Cantonese, they were able to chat at length in Mandarin on the set of The Replacement Killers.
Her father, noted character actor Paul Sorvino, discouraged Mira from entering acting. She worked as a waitress and gave Mandarin lessons for several years, while auditioning for stage, TV, and movie parts, and usually being rejected. She briefly appeared on the soap opera Guiding Light and had small roles in several minor movies, until 1995 when she played a hooker and porn star in Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite, and won an Oscar. Since then, though, with only the rarest exceptions, she has appeared in artsy films, eschewing offers of potential big-budget blockbusters. Her more memorable films include Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, John Woo's The Replacement Killers, and Spike Lee's Summer of Sam. She also battled killer cockroaches in Mimic.
[1] GQ magazine, August 1997 interview. Father: Paul Sorvino (actor)
Mother: Lorraine Sorvino (therapist, div.)
Mother: Vanessa Arico (stepmother, m. Paul Sorvino 1991, div. 1996)
Brother: Michael Sorvino (occasionally an actor)
Sister: Amanda Sorvino (runs animal resuce mission, b. 1971)
Boyfriend: Quentin Tarantino (film director, together 1996-98)
Boyfriend: Olivier Martinez (French actor, together 1999-2002)
Husband: Christopher Backus (waiter/actor, m. 11-Jun-2004, two daughters, two sons)
Daughter: Mattea Angel Backus (b. 3-Nov-2004)
Son: Johnny Christopher King Backus (b. 29-May-2006)
Son: Holden Paul Terry Backus (b. 22-Jun-2009)
Daughter: Lucia Backus (b. 3-May-2012)
High School: Dwight Englewood High School, Englewood, NJ (1986)
University: BA East Asian Studies, Harvard University (1990)
Oscar for Best Supporting Actress 1996 for Mighty Aphrodite
Golden Globe 1996 for Mighty Aphrodite
Italian Ancestry
Risk Factors: Smoking
TELEVISION
The Guiding Light Julie Camalletti (1991)
Swans Crossing Sophia Decastro (1992)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Stuber (13-Mar-2019)
Look Away (12-Oct-2018)
Exposed (22-Jan-2016)
Space Warriors (26-Apr-2013)
Trade of Innocents (28-Sep-2012)
Woody Allen: A Documentary (30-May-2012) · Herself
Smitty (10-Apr-2012)
Union Square (15-Sep-2011) · Lucy
Angels Crest (22-Apr-2011) · Angie
The Presence (Aug-2010) · Woman
Multiple Sarcasms (8-Apr-2010) · Cari
Attack on Leningrad (15-May-2009)
Like Dandelion Dust (25-Feb-2009)
The Last Templar (25-Jan-2009)
Reservation Road (13-Sep-2007)
Covert One: The Hades Factor (9-Apr-2006)
Human Trafficking (24-Oct-2005)
The Final Cut (11-Feb-2004) · Delila
Gods and Generals (10-Feb-2003)
Between Strangers (30-Aug-2002) · Natalia
Angel of Death (24-Apr-2002)
Wisegirls (13-Jan-2002) · Meg Kennedy
The Grey Zone (13-Sep-2001)
Triumph of Love (6-Sep-2001)
The Great Gatsby (14-Jan-2001)
Welcome to Hollywood (27-Oct-2000) · Herself
Bamboozled (18-Sep-2000) · Herself
Lisa Picard Is Famous (14-May-2000) · Herself
Summer of Sam (20-May-1999)
At First Sight (12-Jan-1999) · Amy Benic
Free Money (3-Dec-1998) · Agent Karen Polarski
Lulu on the Bridge (14-Aug-1998) · Celia Burns
Too Tired to Die (20-Jan-1998)
The Replacement Killers (12-Jan-1998) · Meg Coburn
Mimic (22-Aug-1997) · Susan Tyler
Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (25-Apr-1997) · Romy
Norma Jean & Marilyn (18-May-1996)
Sweet Nothing (27-Mar-1996)
Beautiful Girls (9-Feb-1996) · Sharon Cassidy
Tales of Erotica (1996)
Blue in the Face (15-Sep-1995) · Young Lady
Mighty Aphrodite (13-Sep-1995)
The Buccaneers (5-Feb-1995)
Quiz Show (14-Sep-1994) · Sandra Goodwin
Parallel Lives (14-Aug-1994)
Barcelona (Jun-1994) · Marta
Amongst Friends (23-Jul-1993) · Laura
New York Cop (1993) · Maria
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