MILO VENTIMIGLIA

'Milo Anthony Ventimiglia' (born July 8, 1977) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the NBC series ''Heroes'' as idealistic hero Peter Petrelli and in the family-oriented television series ''Gilmore Girls'' as Rory's rebel boyfriend Jess Mariano. His last name, "Ventimiglia," literally translates to "twenty miles" in Italian.

Contents

Early life

Career

Production Work

Personal life

Footnotes

External links

Early life

Ventimiglia was born in Anaheim, California to Carol and Peter Ventimiglia.^[1] He is of Sicilian descent on his father's side and a combination of Irish, English, Scottish, French, Cherokee, and Indian descent on his mother's. The youngest of three children, he has two older sisters. He was born with inactive nerve endings on the right side of his lower lip. Ventimiglia attended El Modena High School in Orange, California, where he wrestled and held the office of president in student government (ASB). He graduated in 1995.
At the age of 18, Ventimiglia received a scholarship to study at the American Conservatory Theater for their summer program.^[2]
He attended UCLA as an English major for four years.

Career

At 18 years of age, Ventimiglia started auditioning, booking jobs, and working his way up. From there, Ventimiglia studied for a while at UCLA before landing a role on ''The Fresh Prince of Bel Air''.^[3] Ventimiglia has also guest starred on series such as '', ''Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (TV series)'', '' and ''Boston Public.''
From 2001 to 2003, 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 (Adrian Pasdar, who plays Ventimiglia's brother on ''Heroes'', was up for the role of the father), but the proposed series never made it to the 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. He also directed the 2003 and 2004 WB Image Campaigns for the WB. Ventimiglia returned to ''Gilmore Girls'' for a few episodes in seasons four and six since 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 Milo, and only Milo, 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.
Currently, he is starring as Peter Petrelli in ''Heroes'', a show about "ordinary" people discovering they have superpowers, which airs Monday nights at 9:00 PM EST on NBC.
According to Yahoo! Movies, Milo has recently signed on to star in the horror film ''Pathology''. The movie will co-star ''Charmed'' actress Alyssa Milano and will be directed by Marc Schoelermann for MGM. He can also presently be seen as the love interest of Pop singer Fergie in her latest music video for her single "Big Girls Don't Cry".

Production Work

In addition to being hired as a second unit director for the 2003 and 2004 "Image Campaigns" for The WB Network, which is no longer in existence, Divide Pictures (the production company Milo co-owns and operates with best friends Russ Cundiff and Dino DeMilio, 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 2nd. According to American Eagle's website, Milo will be directing the series, while his friend Russ will be producing it.

Personal life

★ Ventimiglia is a lacto-vegetarian.^[4]

★ Ventimiglia and fellow former ''Gilmore Girls'' co-star Alexis Bledel dated for three and a half years, but the relationship ended sometime July 2006.

★ Ventimiglia is a fan of British band The Clash.^[5]

★ When he was younger, Ventimiglia's older sisters dressed him up as Madonna and took photos. He found the photos when he was 13 years old and tore them up.

★ On the Munich leg of the Heroes World Tour in 2007, Ventimiglia and his co-star Adrian Pasdar were presented with a pair of lederhosen each by the German construction workers involved with setting up the stage. Pasdar convinced Ventimiglia to try on the lederhosen for the Germans after he had originally refused to do so.

★ He was shown in the music video of Big Girls don't cry as the lover of Fergie

Footnotes

1. Yo! Ventimiglia gets into the tough-guy act William Keck
2. Milo Ventimiglia Fan
3. Ventimiglia moves from super-rebel to superhero
4. TV.Com Trivia
5.

External links

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★ Divide Pictures (Milo's Production Company)