Alessandro Nivola

Alessandro Antine Nivola (born June 28, 1972) is an American actor and producer who has starred in feature films such as Face/Off, American Hustle, A Most Violent Year, and a brief appearance in Selma.\n', ' Nivola was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother, Virginia (née Davis), is an artist, and his father, Pietro Salvatore Nivola (born 1944), was a professor of political science. Nivola\'s paternal grandfather was the Italian sculptor Costantino Nivola, and his paternal grandmother, Ruth Guggenheim, was a Jewish refugee from Germany. Nivola has described his mother as "a WASP, from the South", and has stated that she is a relative of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. He has a brother, Adrian, and attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale University. Alessandro\'s family also lived in Burlington, Vermont, where he attended Mater Christi School, a ministry of the Sisters of Mercy.\n', ' Nivola earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for his first performance on the New York stage in the 1995 Broadway production of A Month In The Country opposite Helen Mirren. Since then he has starred in numerous films including David O. Russell\'s American Hustle which earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award. Among his other films are Lisa Cholodenko\'s Laurel Canyon (Independent Spirit Award nomination for best supporting actor), Coco Before Chanel, Junebug, Mansfield Park, Kenneth Branagh\'s Love\'s Labour\'s Lost, Jurassic Park 3, Goal 1 and 2, The Eye, I Want You, Best Laid Plans, Janie Jones, Five Dollars A Day, and John Woo\'s Face/Off (Blockbuster Entertainment Award nomination). In 2009 he was given the Excellence in Acting Award at the Provincetown International Film Festival.[citation needed]\n', '