# Alessandro Nivola

Alessandro Antine Nivola (born June 28, 1972) is an American actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he has received several nominations including for a Tony Award and an Independent Spirit Award and has won a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Nivola made his acting film debut in Face/Off (1997) and has since acted in films such as Mansfield Park (1999), Jurassic Park III (2001), Laurel Canyon (2002), Junebug (2005), Coco Before Chanel (2009), Ginger & Rosa (2012), American Hustle (2013), Selma (2014), A Most Violent Year (2014), Disobedience (2017), You Were Never Really Here (2017), The Art of Self-Defense (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Boston Strangler (2023), The Room Next Door (2024), and The Brutalist (2024). He portrayed Aleksei Sytsevich / Rhino in the Marvel superhero film Kraven the Hunter (2024).
He founded the production company, King Bee Productions with his wife Emily Mortimer in 2013. On television, he acted in and produced the HBO comedy Doll & Em (2015), and has portrayed Mark Madoff in the HBO television film The Wizard of Lies (2017), Mr. Dean in the FX / BBC One series Black Narcissus (2020) and Bert Schneider in the Apple TV+ thriller miniseries The Big Cigar (2024).
On stage, he made his Broadway debut in the play A Month in the Country (1995) for which he was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play. He returned to Broadway acting in the revivals of Terence Rattigan's The Winslow Boy (2012), and Bernard Pomerance's The Elephant Man earning a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play nomination for the later.

## Early life and education

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.
Nivola's paternal grandfather was the Sardinian sculptor Costantino Nivola, and his paternal grandmother, Ruth Guggenheim, was a Jewish refugee from Germany. 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.

## Career

Nivola graduated from Yale University with a BA in English in 1994. A year later he made his Broadway debut opposite Helen Mirren in A Month in the Country, earning a Drama Desk Award nomination. That year he also starred opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in the 1995 Williamstown Theater Festival production of Shakespeare's As You Like It. 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), You Were Never Really Here (2017), Disobedience (2017), 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. In 2022, he appeared in David O. Russell's Amsterdam opposite Christian Bale and Margot Robbie, as well as the comedy feature Spin Me Round opposite Alison Brie and Aubrey Plaza.
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, he starred off-Broadway in a revival of the Sam Shepard play A Lie of the Mind (2010), with Laurie Metcalf and directed by Ethan Hawke. On Broadway he starred in 2013 in The Winslow Boy and in 2014 in the revival The Elephant Man opposite Bradley Cooper (for which he earned a Tony Award nomination).
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. It 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.

## 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. 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.

## Acting credits
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1997 | Face/Off | Pollux Troy | |
| 1997 | Inventing the Abbotts | Peter Vanlaningham | |
| 1998 | I Want You | Martin | |
| 1998 | Reach the Rock | Robin | |
| 1999 | Best Laid Plans | Nick | |
| 1999 | Mansfield Park | Henry Crawford | |
| 2000 | Love's Labour's Lost | King Ferdinand of Navarre | |
| 2000 | Timecode | Joey Z | |
| 2001 | Jurassic Park III | Billy Brennan | |
| 2002 | Imprint | Matt | Short film |
| 2002 | Laurel Canyon | Ian McKnight | |
| 2003 | Carolina | Albert Morris | |
| 2004 | The Clearing | Tim Hayes | |
| 2005 | Junebug | George Johnsten | |
| 2005 | The Sisters | Andrew Prior | |
| 2005 | Turning Green | Bill the Bookie | |
| 2005 | Goal! | Gavin Harris | |
| 2006 | The Darwin Awards | Ad Exec | |
| 2007 | Grace Is Gone | John Phillips | |
| 2007 | Goal II: Living the Dream | Gavin Harris | |
| 2007 | The Girl in the Park | Chris | |
| 2008 | The Eye | Dr. Paul Faulkner | |
| 2008 | Five Dollars a Day | Ritchie Flynn Parker | |
| 2008 | Who Do You Love? | Leonard Chess | |
| 2009 | Coco Before Chanel | Arthur 'Boy' Capel | |
| 2010 | Howl | Luther Nichols | |
| 2010 | Janie Jones | Ethan Brand | |
| 2012 | Ginger & Rosa | Roland | |
| 2013 | American Hustle | Anthony Amado | |
| 2014 | Devil's Knot | Terry Hobbs | |
| 2014 | Selma | John Doar | |
| 2014 | A Most Violent Year | Peter Forente | |
| 2016 | The Neon Demon | Robert Sarno | |
| 2017 | One Percent More Humid | Gerald | |
| 2017 | You Were Never Really Here | Governor Williams | |
| 2017 | Disobedience | Rabbi Dovid Kuperman | |
| 2018 | Weightless | Joel | |
| 2018 | To Dust | — | Producer |
| 2019 | The Art of Self-Defense | Sensei | |
| 2019 | The Red Sea Diving Resort | Sammy Navon | |
| 2021 | With/In: Volume 2 | | Segment: "Neighborhood Watch" |
| 2021 | The Many Saints of Newark | Dickie Moltisanti | |
| 2022 | Spin Me Round | Nick Martucci | |
| 2022 | Amsterdam | Detective Hiltz | |
| 2023 | Boston Strangler | Detective Conley | |
| 2023 | Wildcat | John Selby | |
| 2024 | The Brutalist | Attila | |
| 2024 | The Room Next Door | Policeman | |
| 2024 | Kraven the Hunter | Aleksei Sytsevich / Rhino | |
| 2025 | Fantasy Life | David | |
| 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!" |
| 1996 | 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 |

### Theater

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

## Awards and nominations

He has won a British Independent Film Award (BIFA), and the Best Actor Award at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival among others.