Sorvino was born on September 28, , in Manhattan, New York City, [ 2 ] to Lorraine Ruth Davis, a drama therapist for Alzheimer's disease patients and former actress, and Paul Sorvino , an actor and film director.
She is of Italian descent on her father's side. She was raised in Tenafly, New Jersey , [ 5 ] where she wrote and acted in backyard plays with her childhood friend Hope Davis , and in theater productions at Dwight-Englewood School.
Sorvino's first major screen appearance was in the teen television series Swans Crossing , where she appeared in six episodes. The positive reviews she received [ 11 ] [ 12 ] led to more acting opportunities. Her portrayal of a happy-go-lucky prostitute made her a star, winning her an Academy Award [ 13 ] and Golden Globe [ 14 ] for Best Supporting Actress. Although the film brought her international recognition, she described its shooting as extremely stressful: "I was absolutely neurotic doing Mighty Aphrodite ," she recalled.
I'd cry and talk to God, I was so nervous. Then the next day, I'd show up and do my scenes. In , Sorvino appeared as the lead in The Triumph of Love , an adaptation of the Marivaux play. In February , she guest-starred as psychiatrist Cate Milton in the "Frozen" episode of the medical television drama House.
Plans to make hers a recurring character were interrupted by the writers' strike. In , she appeared in the Netflix series Lady Dynamite as an actor working on a sitcom pilot named White Trash. In , Sorvino was cast in the Netflix miniseries Hollywood as an actor whose career stalled out after a relationship with a studio head. In , she played a supporting role in Sound of Freedom , a film about human trafficking in South America.
