Mira Sorvino (48)

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.