Mira Sorvino
Mira Sorvino was born in Tenafly, an affluent northern New Jersey suburb, in 1967. She is the daughter of veteran character actor Paul Sorvino, who discouraged her from becoming an actor, as he knew how the industry often chews up young stars. The young Sorvino was intelligent, an avid reader and an exceptional scholar. She attended Harvard, majoring in Chinese, graduating magna cum laude in 1989, laurgely on the strength of her thesis, a Hoopes Prize-winning thesis on racial conflict in China, written and reserached during the year spent in Beijing, which helped her fluency in Mandarin Chinese. Mira has a remarkable filmography, with memorable and compelling roles in films such as the cult classic “romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion”, “At First Sight,” co-starring with Val Kilmer, “Gods and Generals,” “The Final Cut” with Robin Williams and Jim Caviezel, “Reservati Dandelion Dust” with Barry Pepper. In 1996, she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in Woody Allen’s “Mighty Aphrodite,” and in February 2009 Ms. Sorvino was named the Goodwill Ambassador to combat human trafficking for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
