Educated at Yale University and received his degree in English.
Attended Phillips Exeter Academy high school.
Received a B.A. in English Literature from Yale University, Class of 1994.
Older brother of Adrian Nivola, who also went to Yale
Son with wife Emily, born September 26, 2003
His father, Pietro, is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.
Nivola made a strong first impression on audiences and critics alike in John Woo's thriller FaceOff in which he played Nicolas Cage's paranoid genius younger brother. In addition to Laurel Canyon, the American actor has made a prominent name for himself playing several other British roles, among them Kenneth Branagh's Love's Labour's Lost, Michael Winterbottom's I Want You, and Patricia Rozema's Mansfield Park. His other films include Best Laid Plans opposite Reese Witherspoon, Mike Figgis' Time Code, Pat O'Connor's Inventing the Abbotts, and a role opposite some marauding dinosaurs in Jurassic Park III. Nivola has a BA from Yale University and began his career in the theater, starring on Broadway opposite Helen Mirren in A Month in the Country for which he received a Drama Desk nomination. He recently played Orlando to Gwyneth Paltrow's Rosalind in As You Like It at the Williamstown Theater Festival.
Nivola is currently filming The Clearing, with Robert Redford, Helen Mirren and Willem Dafoe. He will soon be seen starring with Julia Stiles and Shirley MacLaine in Carolina.
