Alessandro Nivola

Alessandro Nivola (Billy Brennan) began his acting career inafter graduating from Yale University in 1994 with a degree in english literature. After training in both England and America, and performing at numerous regional theaters around the country, the Boston-born actor received a Drama Desk Award nomination in 1995 for his Broadway debut oppisite Helen Mirren and F. Murray Abraham in Turgenev's A Month In the Country. He returned to the stage in the summer of 1999 to star opposite Gwyneth Paltro in Shakespear's As You Like It at the Williamstown Theater Festival.

Nivola's first major role on the big screen was that of Nicolas Cage's paranoid, criminal-genious younger brother, Pollux Troy, in John Woo's action hit, Face/Off. The performance brought Nivola rave reviews and a Blockbuster Entertainment Award nomination. He has since appeared in Kenneth Branagh's musical adaption Shakespear's Loves Labours Lost and in Patricia Rozma's adaption of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. He co-starred in Mike Figgis' revolution digital film Time Code 2000 with Holly Hunter, Salma Hayeka and Jeanna tripplehorn, and in Best Laid plans along side Reese Witherspoon. Nivola made his motion picture dubut in pat O'Conner's Inventing the Abbotts, starrred oppisite Rachel Weisz in Micheal Winterbottom's thriller I want You and had the lead role in the John Hughes-penned drama, Reach the Rock. His television work includes the miniseries The Ring with Nastassia Kinski.