28 September 1967, Tenafly, New Jersey, USA
5' 9" (1.75 m)
However, she showed interest in a career in acting from an early age,
and moved to New York City to try her hand in the City's film industry,
waitressing, auditioning and working at the Tribeca production company
of
Robert De Niro.
She
succeeded in getting a little television work in the early 1990s, but
got her first film job in the independent gangster movie
Amongst Friends
(1993), on which she worked her way up the ladder behind the camera to
eventually associate-produce the film, and, more importantly, was
eventually cast as the female lead.
The movie was forgettable, but
Sorvino's performance was not, and attracted enough buzz to get her cast
in two more movies, one a more prominent indie,
Barcelona (1994), the other her first Hollywood feature,
Quiz Show (El dilema) (1994), and her skillful performances brought her yet more attention.
An exceptionally poised and articulate young woman, she may have seemed inappropriate to play a crazy hooker, but
Woody Allen took the chance, and her magnificent performance as the female lead in his
Poderosa Afrodita
(1995) proved her range as a performer and earned her an Oscar (at the
tender age of 29) for Best Supporting Actress.
Since winning the Oscar,
Sorvino has continued to take a wide range of roles, including another
stretch as
Marilyn Monroe in
Norma Jean y Marilyn (1996) (TV), co-starring with another very intelligent and skilled young actress,
Ashley Judd. Forays into action and horror, such as
Mimic (1997) and
Asesinos de reemplazo (1998) show that Sorvino is not above being playful in the film roles she chooses.
