Milo Ventimiglia is an American actor, producer, director and screenwriter. Best known for starring in the TV series The Gilmore Girls, Heroes, and This Is Us. He also played supporting roles in many feature films, in particular in the sports drama Rocky Balboa, the action movie Crazy Card and the comedy Papa dosvidos.
Childhood and youth
Milo Ventimiglia was born July 8, 1977 in Anaheim, California. It has Italian and Scottish roots. He was born with a facial nerve defect, which made the left half of his face inactive, a famous actor and director Sylvester Stallone has a similar injury.
While studying at school, in addition to theater, he was engaged in wrestling and was president of school self-government. After graduating from high school, he entered the University of California, where he studied theater.
Carier start
At the age of eighteen, Milo Ventimiglia got the main role in the short film directed by Nicholas Perry, which was included in the anthology film "Boys' Life 2". The picture told about the life of youth of non-traditional sexual orientation in modern America.
In subsequent years, the young actor received small roles in the successful series The Prince of Beverly Hills, Sabrina the Little Witch and Law and Order. In 2000, Milo got the lead role in the teenage series Opposite Sex, which was closed after showing eight episodes.
Big breakthrough
In 2004, Milo Ventimiglia joined the cast of the Gilmore Girls series for the second season. He got the role of Jess Mariano, the guy of the main character Rory Gilmore. The channel planned to launch a spin-off of the series, which would focus on Jess and his father, but the series was never put into production.
After this, Milo left the project, appearing as a guest star in several series of subsequent seasons. He continued to actively work on other television projects as a guest star. In 2006, the Bedford Diaries mini-series was released, starring the actor.
Work in film and television
In 2006, Milo Ventimiglia appeared in the sixth film of the Rocky series as the son of the main character performed by Sylvester Stallone. The picture was well received by critics and performed well at the box office. In the film "Creed", which was released nine years later, the character Milo did not appear.
In the same year, the actor received one of the main roles in the fantastic series "Heroes". The project was a hit from the very beginning and showed excellent ratings, but with every season it lost spectators and was closed after the fourth season. In 2008, Milo played a major role in the horror film Pathology. A year later, he appeared in the action movie "Gamer".
In subsequent years, the actor was haunted by failure, among the films with Milo Ventimiglia of this period, the comedy Papa dosvidos, the thriller The Season of the Killers, the biographical drama Princess of Monaco and the action movie Crazy Card stand out. However, they all showed themselves extremely mediocre at the box office and received negative reviews from critics.
On television, the actor also could not find a new successful project. Frank Darabont’s crime drama "City of Gangsters" was closed after the first season, the web series "The Chosen One" was also not extended for the second season. After that, Milo appeared in several episodes of the series “Gotham” and got the main role in the sci-fi project “Whisper”, which was again closed by the channel after the first season.
In 2016, Milo Ventimiglia appeared as a guest star in the comedy series "League" and returned to the role of Jess Marino in the mini-series "Girls Gilmore: Seasons."
New success
A new wave of success came to the actor along with the series "This is Us." The project of scriptwriter and director Dan Vogelman unexpectedly for many became one of the main series of the year. For the first season of the drama, Milo Ventimiglia was first nominated for an Emmy Award, but lost to his project colleague Sterling C. Brown. For work on the second season of the series, both actors were again nominated for the best actor award in a drama series.
Along with the actor’s new popularity, rumors began circulating on the Web that he would get a role in one of the superhero blockbusters based on DC comics. Initially, a campaign was conducted on the Internet about casting Milo for the role of Nightwing, a superhero from Batman comics, on the Web you can find many photos of Milo Ventimiglia in the image of a superhero. However, recently, when it became known that Ben Affleck may not return to the image of the Dark Knight, the name of the actor began to appear in the lists of applicants for the role of Bruce Wayne.
At the moment, in addition to filming in the new season "It's Us", the actor is busy in the production of several feature films at once. He also acts as a producer, director and screenwriter, on his account several web series and short films.
Personal life
Milo Ventimiglia is a vegetarian since childhood, according to him, he and his two sisters grew up as lacto-vegans, and with age he did not refuse this practice. He was recognized as the sexiest vegetarian in the world in 2009. Also, the actor does not drink alcohol and does not smoke cigarettes. He is a fan of the punk rock band The Clash. In 2018, he took part in a tour of Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan with the aim of raising the morale of American troops.
The personal life of Milo Ventimiglia has been actively discussed in the media from the very beginning of his career. From 2002 to 2006, he met with a colleague on the series "Gilmore Girls" Alexis Bledel. Later, he began to meet with a colleague on the TV series "Heroes". Milo Ventimiglia and Hayden Panettiere were a couple from 2007 to 2009.