Alessandro Nivola

Alessandro Nivola
Nivola in 2024.
Born	Alessandro Antine Nivola (1972-06-28) June 28, 1972 (age 52) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Citizenship	United States United Kingdom
Alma mater	Yale University (BA)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1993–present
Spouse	Emily Mortimer ​ (m. 2003)​
Children	2, including Sam

Alessandro Antine Nivola (born June 28, 1972)^[1] is an American actor. He has been nominated for a Tony Award and an Independent Spirit Award and has won a Screen Actors Guild Award, a British Independent Film Award (BIFA), and the Best Actor Award at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival among others.

As a producer he runs King Bee Productions, which has made two seasons of the HBO comedy Doll & Em and the Independent Spirit Award nominated feature film To Dust.

Early life

Nivola was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother, Virginia (née Davis), is an artist, and his father, Pietro Salvatore Nivola, was a professor of political science and a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution.^[2][3][4]

Nivola's paternal grandfather was the Italian sculptor Costantino Nivola,^[5] and his paternal grandmother, Ruth Guggenheim,^[6] was a Jewish refugee from Germany.^{[7][8][9][10][11]} He was born the first of two boys; his brother, Adrian Nivola, a painter, is five years younger.

Nivola attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale University. His family also lived in Burlington, Vermont, where he attended Mater Christi School, a ministry of the Sisters of Mercy.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Nivola graduated from Yale University with a BA in English in 1994 and a year later made his Broadway debut opposite Helen Mirren in A Month in the Country earning a Drama Desk Award nomination.^[12] Shortly after that came his breakthrough performance in John Woo's feature film Face/Off (1997) playing Nicolas Cage's brother Pollux Troy. In the ensuing years he has starred in many films including Mansfield Park (1999), Love's Labour's Lost (2000), Jurassic Park III (2001), Laurel Canyon (2002), Junebug (2005), Goal! 1 & 2 (2005, 2007), Coco Before Chanel (2009), Ginger & Rosa (2012), American Hustle (2013), A Most Violent Year (2014), Selma (2014), The Neon Demon (2016), One Percent More Humid (2017),^[13] You Were Never Really Here (2017), Disobedience (2017),^[14] The Art of Self Defense (2019), and The Red Sea Diving Resort (2019).

He played Dickie Moltisanti, the lead role in The Many Saints of Newark, David Chase's feature film prequel to his television series The Sopranos.^[15] In 2022, he appeared in David O. Russell's Amsterdam opposite Christian Bale and Margot Robbie,^[16] as well as the comedy feature Spin Me Round opposite Alison Brie and Aubrey Plaza.^[17]

Nivola has also worked frequently in television, starring opposite Robert De Niro in Barry Levinson's Madoff family biopic The Wizard of Lies (2017), as well as the TNT miniseries The Company (2007), the UK Channel 4 series Chimerica (2019), and the three-part BBC miniseries Black Narcissus, broadcast 27, 28, and 29 December 2020.

Onstage, in addition to A Month in the Country, he starred on Broadway in 2013 in The Winslow Boy and in 2014 in The Elephant Man opposite Bradley Cooper (Tony Award nomination), and off-Broadway in the Ethan Hawke-directed Sam Shepard play A Lie of the Mind (2010) with Laurie Metcalf. He also starred opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in the 1995 Williamstown Theater Festival production of Shakespeare's As You Like It.

In 2013 Nivola established King Bee Productions with his wife Emily Mortimer. The company produced two seasons of the half hour comedy Doll & Em for HBO and BSkyB. He also produced To Dust starring Matthew Broderick which won the Audience Award at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for a 2020 Independent Spirit Award.

In 2024, Nivola appeared in Sony's Kraven the Hunter film, in which he played Spider-Man antagonist The Rhino.^[18][19]

Personal life

Nivola married British actress Emily Mortimer in Buckinghamshire in January 2003. The couple have a son, Sam, born 26 September 2003, and daughter, May, born 2010, and live in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.^[20] Sam and May play brother and sister in the 2022 Netflix film White Noise as the children of characters played by Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig. Nivola became a British citizen the same day Mortimer became an American citizen.^[21]

Acting credits

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Face/Off	Pollux Troy
	Inventing the Abbotts	Peter Vanlaningham
1998	I Want You	Martin
	Reach the Rock	Robin
1999	Best Laid Plans	Nick
	Mansfield Park	Henry Crawford
2000	Love's Labour's Lost	King Ferdinand of Navarre
	Timecode	Joey Z
2001	Jurassic Park III	Billy Brennan
2002	Imprint	Matt	Short film
	Laurel Canyon	Ian McKnight
2003	Carolina	Albert Morris
2004	The Clearing	Tim Hayes
2005	Junebug	George Johnsten
	The Sisters	Andrew Prior
	Turning Green	Bill the Bookie
	Goal!	Gavin Harris
2006	The Darwin Awards	Ad Exec
2007	Grace Is Gone	John Phillips
	Goal II: Living the Dream	Gavin Harris
	The Girl in the Park	Chris
2008	The Eye	Dr. Paul Faulkner
	Five Dollars a Day	Ritchie Flynn Parker
	Who Do You Love?	Leonard Chess
2009	Coco Before Chanel	Arthur 'Boy' Capel
2010	Howl	Luther Nichols
	Janie Jones	Ethan Brand
2012	Ginger & Rosa[22]	Roland
2013	American Hustle	Anthony Amado
2014	Devil's Knot	Terry Hobbs
	Selma	John Doar
	A Most Violent Year	Peter Forente
2016	The Neon Demon	Robert Sarno	Psychological Horror / Thriller
2017	One Percent More Humid	Gerald
	You Were Never Really Here	Governor Williams
	Disobedience	Rabbi Dovid Kuperman	Drama
2018	Weightless	Joel	Drama
	To Dust	—	Producer
2019	The Art of Self-Defense	Sensei
	The Red Sea Diving Resort	Sammy Navon
2021	With/In: Volume 2		Segment: "Neighborhood Watch"
	The Many Saints of Newark	Dickie Moltisanti
2022	Spin Me Round	Nick Martucci	Comedy / Romance
	Amsterdam	Detective Hiltz
2023	Boston Strangler	Detective Conley	Directed by Matt Ruskin
	Wildcat	John Selby
2024	The Brutalist	Attila	Drama Directed by Brady Corbet
	The Room Next Door	Policeman
	Kraven the Hunter	Aleksei Sytsevich / Rhino
2025	Untitled Downton Abbey: A New Era sequel †	TBA	Post-production

Key

†	Denotes films that have not yet been released

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Remember WENN	Paul Rice	Episode: "Valentino Speaks!"
	The Ring	Noel	Television film
1998	The Almost Perfect Bank Robbery	Doug	Television film
2007	The Company	Leo Kritzky	Miniseries
2015	Doll & Em	John	4 episodes; also producer
2017	The Wizard of Lies	Mark Madoff	Television film
2019	Chimerica	Lee Berger	4 episodes
2020	Black Narcissus	Mr. Dean	Miniseries
2022	The Last Movie Stars	Richard Brooks / Robert Redford (voice)	4 episodes
2024	The Big Cigar	Bert Schneider	Main role

Key

†	Denotes series that have not yet been released

Stage

Stage credits

Year	Title	Role	Venue
1993	"Master Harold"...and the Boys	Hally	Intiman Theatre Festival
1995	A Month in the Country	Beliaev	Criterion Center Stage Right
1999	As You Like It	Orlando	Williamstown Theatre Festival
2010	A Lie of the Mind	Jake	Acorn Theater
2012	The Elephant Man	Frederick Treves	Williamstown Theatre Festival
2013	The Winslow Boy	Sir Robert Morton	American Airlines Theatre
2014	The Elephant Man	Frederick Treves	Booth Theatre
2015			Theatre Royal Haymarket

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Alessandro Nivola

References

1. "Celebrity Birthdays: June 28". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. June 28, 2021. Retrieved June 28, 2021. Actor Alessandro Nivola ... is 49
2. "Alessandro Nivola Biography". Tvguide.com. Retrieved May 26, 2014.
3. Fee, Gayle (October 1, 2007). "Inside Track". Boston Herald. Archived from the original on July 24, 2012.
4. "Thomas J. Davis, 77, Investment Executive". The New York Times. September 13, 1990.
5. Elias, Justine (September 13, 1998). "The New Season/Film: Up and Coming: Alessandro Nivola; From a Family of Painters, a Quick-Change Artist". The New York Times. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
6. "Costantino Nivola: public and private: a selection of Nivola's sculptures, soon to leave the U.S. for a permanent home in a museum devoted to the artist in Sardinia, provided a rare overview of his work at the Parrish Museum". Art in America. Retrieved May 26, 2014.
7. Tangcay, Jazz (April 25, 2018). "Interview: Alessandro Nivola on Playing the Conflicted Dovid in Disobedience". Awards Daily. Archived from the original on May 20, 2018. Retrieved May 19, 2018. Alessandro Nivola: "My grandmother was German-Jewish from Frankfurt and she ended up being a Holocaust refugee."
8. Pisani, Lavinia (November 10, 2015). "A Conversation with Italian American Star Alessandro Nivola". L'Italo-Americano Newspaper. Archived from the original on May 20, 2018. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
9. Bloom, Nate (April 18, 2018). "Amy Schumer 'feeling pretty'; and a young Jewish Picasso". J. The Jewish News of Northern California. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
10. Menzel, Scott (May 9, 2018). "Alessandro Nivola talks Disobedience, reuniting with Rachel Weisz, and The Art of Self-Defense". We Live Entertainment. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
11. "WGNTV.com". Timeliness: Will it help 'Goal' score?. Retrieved June 17, 2006. ^{[dead link‍]}
12. "A Month in the Country Production History". Broadwayworld.com.
13. Cox, Gordon (April 27, 2017). "Tribeca Film Festival 'Keep the Change,' 'Bobbi Jene' Win Top Awards". Variety.com.
14. Wiseman, Andreas (December 2, 2018). "British Independent Film Awards: 'The Favourite' Wins A Record Ten Awards". Deadline Hollywood.
15. Vlessing, Etan (November 20, 2018). "'Sopranos' Prequel Film Taps Alessandro Nivola For Lead Role". hollywoodreporter.com.
16. N'Duka, Amanda (January 14, 2021). "Robert De Niro, Mike Myers, Timothy Olyphant, Michael Shannon, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy & More Join David O. Russell Movie". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 14, 2021.
17. "Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, Alessandro Nivola Top Ensemble Comedy 'Spin Me Round' from Limelight & Duplass Brothers". Deadline Hollywood. May 6, 2021. Retrieved May 6, 2021.
18. Jackson, Angelique (March 4, 2022). "Sony's 'Kraven the Hunter' Casts Alessandro Nivola". Variety. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
19. "Aaron Taylor-Johnson Brings Bloody, R-Rated 'Kraven the Hunter' Footage to CinemaCon". The Hollywood Reporter. April 25, 2023.
20. Vincentelli, Elizabeth (November 16, 2013). "Alessandro Nivola: My Brooklyn". New York Post. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
21. de Bertodano, Helena (July 24, 2011). "Emily Mortimer interview: 'I hope my kids don't look like my father'". Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Limited.
22. Potter, Sally. "Ginger & Rosa". Sally Potter. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved September 17, 2012.

External links

• Alessandro Nivola at IMDb
• Alessandro Nivola at the Internet Broadway Database
• Alessandro Nivola at the Internet Off-Broadway Database