Mira Katherine Sorvino (born September 28, 1967) is an American actress. She came to prominence after winning the Academy Award and Golden Globe for best supporting actress for her performance in Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite (1995). She is also known for starring in the films Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997), Mimic (1997), The Replacement Killers (1998), Summer of Sam (1999), and Like Dandelion Dust (2009). She received Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for her role in Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996), and a Golden Globe nomination for her role in Human Trafficking (2005).

Biography

Between 1996 and 1998, Mira Sorvino was romantically involved with director Quentin Tarantino, who was her escort to the Academy Awards ceremony where she won Best Supporting Actress for Mighty Aphrodite.

Sorvino met actor Christopher Backus at a friend's charades party in August 2003. On June 11, 2004, they married in a private civil ceremony at the Santa Barbara, California, courthouse, then later had a hilltop ceremony in Capri, Italy. The couple have four children: daughters Mattea Angel (born 2004) and Lucia (born 2012) and sons Johnny Christopher King (born 2006) and Holden Paul Terry Backus (born 2009).

She has been affiliated with Amnesty International since 2004, and, in 2006, was honored with Amnesty International’s Artist of Conscience Award given to those who have displayed longstanding philanthropic and humanist efforts. Sorvino has been a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador to Combat Human Trafficking, since 2009 through 2012, and has lobbied Congress to abolish human trafficking in Darfur.

In honor of Sorvino's role as Dr. Susan Tyler, an entomologist who was investigating deadly insect mutations in the feature film Mimic, a compound excreted by the sunburst diving beetle as a defensive mechanism was named "mirasorvone" by Thomas Eisner.

In September 2014, Sorvino gave a wide-ranging interview on the The Nerdist Podcast in which she discusses her education and her life in China, and many of her varied interests.

Sorvino is a devout Christian.

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