Milo Ventimiglia

Milo Ventimiglia
Ventimiglia at the Heroes season three premiere, September 2008
Born	Milo Ventimiglia July 8, 1977 (1977-07-08) (age 33) , U.S.
Occupation	Actor, director
Years active	1997–present

Milo Ventimiglia (born July 8, 1977)^[1][2] is an American television actor best known for his role of Peter Petrelli on the TV series Heroes. Ventimiglia was first noticed by fans during his three year stint on the WB series Gilmore Girls, playing Rory Gilmore's boyfriend Jess Mariano from 2001 until his final guest appearance in 2006.^[3]

After his own WB series The Bedford Diaries, a recurring role as Meg Pryor's love interest on NBC's American Dreams, and playing Rocky Balboa's son in the sixth and final installment of the Rocky series, Rocky Balboa, Ventimiglia's big break came in 2006 when he received the part of nurse-turned-superhero Peter Petrelli for four seasons on NBC's Heroes. He appeared in Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor's 2009 film Gamer as Rick Rape.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Production work 3 Personal life 4 Filmography 5 Awards 6 References 7 External links

Early life

Ventimiglia was born in Orange County, California, the son of Carol (née Wilson) and Peter Ventimiglia.^[4] His father is of Sicilian descent and his mother has English, Irish, Scottish, French, and Cherokee Indian ancestry.^[5] His last name, Ventimiglia, is the name of a town of Ventimiglia in Liguria, Italy, which later gave its name to another city, Ventimiglia di Sicilia. Ventimiglia also means 'twenty miles' in Italian. The youngest of three children, he has two older sisters. He has explained in an interview with USA Today that his "crooked mouth" is a result of dead nerves on the left side, which cause that side to remain immobile, much like, incidentally, Sylvester Stallone, with whom he worked in Rocky Balboa.^[4]

Ventimiglia attended El Modena High School in Orange, California, where he wrestled and held the office of president in student government. He graduated in 1995. At eighteen years of age, Ventimiglia received a scholarship to study at the American Conservatory Theater for their summer program.^[6] He attended UCLA as an English major for four years, but did not graduate.^[7]

Career

At eighteen years of age, Ventimiglia started auditioning, booking jobs, and working his way up. His first starring role was as a gay teenager in Must Be The Music, a short film released as part of Strand Releasing's Boys Life 2.^[8] From there, Ventimiglia studied at UCLA before landing a role on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.^[9] Ventimiglia has also guest starred on such television series as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and Boston Public. He had the part of the main character, Jed Perry, in the short-lived FOX TV series, Opposite Sex. Milo also played a key role in an Apple advert for the Apple iBook.^[10]

From 2001 to 2004, Ventimiglia played brooding teen Jess Mariano on Gilmore Girls. He signed on for a spin-off of Gilmore Girls, entitled Windward Circle, which was going to be focused on the relationship between Jess and his estranged father (played by Rob Estes), but the proposed series never made it to air because of high filming costs. The season 3 episode Here Comes the Son, was the pilot for the California-set spin-off, which would have starred Ventimiglia, Rob Estes and Sherilyn Fenn. Ventimiglia returned to Gilmore Girls for a few episodes in seasons four and six after his 2003 departure.

In the third and final season of the NBC drama American Dreams, Ventimiglia played Chris Pierce, the rebellious boyfriend of Meg Pryor (Brittany Snow). Pierce and his single mother, Shelly (Daphne Zuniga), a Playboy bunny, move into the house next to the Pryors. Chris Pierce evades the draft, fearing he would be forced to fight in the Vietnam War, where Meg Pryor's older brother, J.J. (Will Estes) was wounded. Chris and Meg escape Philadelphia in the series finale to Berkeley, California, much to the sadness of Meg's best friend, Roxanne Bojarski (Vanessa Lengies).

In 2005, he starred in the mid-season replacement series The Bedford Diaries, for which he did not have to audition. The producers had only Ventimiglia in mind for the role. However, the show lasted only eight episodes and was one of several shows not picked up by the newly-formed network The CW. During his off-time from television and production work, he has had supporting roles in horror films such as Cursed and Stay Alive as well as starring roles in the short-film Intelligence and the full-length feature Dirty Deeds. Most recently, he played Robert "Rocky Jr." Balboa, the son of Rocky Balboa, in the latest Rocky installment Rocky Balboa which was released in December 2006. Coincidentally, in the Gilmore Girls episode, Nag Hammadi Is Where they Found the Gnostic Gospels, Lorelai Gilmore refers to Milo's character, Jess, as being able to "pull off an extremely convincing 'Adrian'", a reference likening Jess to Rocky Balboa.

In his biggest role to date, he starred as Peter Petrelli in the NBC program Heroes, a show about "ordinary" people discovering they have superpowers. Alongside his work in Heroes, Ventimiglia has also taken on other projects. In mid-2007 he starred as the love interest of pop/R&B singer Fergie in the music video for "Big Girls Don't Cry". In 2008, he starred in the horror film Pathology. The movie co-starred Charmed actress Alyssa Milano and was directed by Marc Schoelermann for MGM.

After working with writers Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor on Pathology, Ventimiglia appeared in the pair's next film, Gamer. He has called Neveldine and Taylor the "next big thing" in filmmaking and immediately agreed to play the part of Rick Rape in the futuristic thriller. When describing Rick Rape, Ventimiglia said that "Moonraker, silver grill, with a latex outfit making him look like a bumblebee. With the perverse nature of a teenage boy on speed."^[11] Ventimiglia is set to star in the Xavier Gens apocalypse thriller film The Divide.^[12]

Production work

In addition to being hired as a second unit director for the 2003 and 2004 "Image Campaigns" for the former WB Network, Divide Pictures (the production company Ventimiglia co-owns and operates with best friend Russ Cundiff) according to USA Today, is now producing and developing a mini web-series called It's a Mall World as part of a marketing campaign for American Eagle Outfitters. The "webisodes" are due to start airing on American Eagle's official website, during episodes of the new season of MTV's The Real World, and in American Eagle stores nationwide on August 2. According to American Eagle's website, Ventimiglia will be directing the series, while his friend Cundiff will be producing it.

In 2005, Divide Pictures created The DSC, or Divide Social Club, an online and global social network for like minded individuals^[13] co-founded by Ventimiglia with his best friends Cundiff and Dino DeMilio, a radio producer for "The Tom Leykis Show". In addition to t-shirt production, Divide Social Club also produces "internet content" in the form of videos that have appeared on YouTube.

Ventimiglia, Russ Cundiff and Divide Pictures partnered with Top Cow to produce the comic series REST which will be a monthly limited series. The comic is about John Barret, a white-collar New Yorker whose life changes when he becomes addicted to a drug that prevents him from falling asleep. Divide also has a comic book called Berserker written by Rick Loverd.^[14]

Ventimiglia will co-produce and appear in "Ultradome," a web series which will debate the comparative merits of science fiction characters. The project is a collaboration between Agility Studios and Ventimiglia's DiVide Pictures. In the first episode, Ventimiglia will argue in favor of Lord of the Rings' superiority over Star Wars.^[15]

Personal life

Ventimiglia is a lacto-vegetarian and has been since birth. Also, he does not smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.^[16] He is a fan of seminal British punk band The Clash,^[17] and is an avid skateboard fan. Before being cast on Heroes, Ventimiglia had been living with close friends Steve Berra and Patrick Fugit.^[18] He dated his Gilmore Girls co-star Alexis Bledel for a 3-and-a-half years. He also dated his Heroes co-star Hayden Panettiere December 2007 to February 2009.

Ventimiglia took a United Service Organization tour from July 6 to 12, 2008 in support of American troops in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.^[19]

He is also active on behalf of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) helping in April 2009 to launch a national public service advertisement campaign, www.SupportYourVet.org, which gives friends and family of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans tools to support their transition home from war.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Must Be the Music	Jason
1997	Boys Life 2	Jason	(segment "Must Be the Music")
1999	She's All That	Soccer Player
1999	Speedway Junky	Travis
2000	Massholes	Doc
2001	Nice Guys Finish Last	Josh
2003	Winter Break	Matt Raymand
2003	Blue Poles	Miles	Short film
2005	Cursed	Bo
2005	Dirty Deeds	Zach Harper
2006	Intelligence	Colin Mathers
2006	Stay Alive	Loomis Crowley
2006	Rocky Balboa	Rocky Balboa, Jr
2008	Pathology	Ted Grey
2009	Gamer	Rick Rape
2009	Armored	Eckehart
2010	Order of Chaos	Rick
2011	Divide, TheThe Divide	Josh	post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, TheThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Air	Party Guest #1	Episode: "Bourgie Sings the Blues"
1996	Sabrina, the Teenage Witch	Letterman	Episode: "Terrible Things"
1996	Saved by the Bell: The New Class	Greg	Episode: "Hospital Blues"
1997	EZ Streets	Young Quinn	Episode: "A Terrible Beauty"
1998	Brooklyn South	Johnny Mancuso	Episode: "Hospital Blues"
1998	Kelly Kelly	Steve Spencer	Episode: "Bye Bye Baby"
1998	One World	Eric	Episode: "Community Service"
2000	Opposite Sex	Jed Perry	8 episodes
2000	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Bobby Taylor	Episode: "Friends & Lovers"
2001– 2006	Gilmore Girls	Jess Mariano	37 episodes
2003	Boston Public	Jake Provesserio	4 episodes
2003	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Lee Healy	Episode: "Escape"
2004– 2005	American Dreams	Chris Pierce	12 episodes
2006	Bedford Diaries, TheThe Bedford Diaries	Richard Thorne III	8 episodes
2008	Robot Chicken	Green Arrow	Episode: "They Took My Thumbs"
2006– 2010	Heroes	Peter Petrelli	70 episodes

Director

Year	Title	Notes
2007	It's a Mall World
2010	Dave Knoll Finds His Soul
2010	Ultradome	Han Solo vs. Indiana Jones

Writer

Year	Title	Notes
2010	Ultradome

Awards

Awards

Year	Award	Category	Film	Result
2007	Teen Choice Award	TV – Choice Actor, Drama	Heroes	Nominated
2008	Teen Choice Award	TV – Choice Actor, Action Adventure	Heroes	Won
2009	Teen Choice Award	TV – Choice Actor, Action Adventure	Heroes	Nominated
2009	Saturn Award	Best Supporting Actor in Television	Heroes	Nominated

References

External links

• Milo Ventimiglia at the Internet Movie Database
• Milo Ventimiglia at TV.com

Persondata
Name	Ventimiglia, Milo
Alternative names	Ventimiglia, Milo Anthony
Short description	Actor
Date of birth	July 8, 1977
Place of birth	Anaheim, California, U.S.
Date of death
Place of death