Anecdotes

Received a B.A. in English Literature from Yale University, Class of 1994.

Attended Phillips Exeter Academy high school.

His paternal grandfather was Italian sculptor Costantino Nivola, and his paternal grandmother, Ruth Guggenheim, was a German Jewish refugee. His mother is of British Isles ancestry.

He and actress Embeth Davidtz played brother and sister in Lettres de Mansfield Park (1999) and husband and wife in Junebug (2005).

Son, Sam Nivola (Samuel John Nivola) (born September 26, 2003) and daughter, May Nivola (May Nivola) (born January 15, 2010) with Emily Mortimer.

His father, Pietro, is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

Played in bands all through high school and college.

Also a fine football (soccer for Americans) player and represented the "Rest of the World" in a charity match against England. The charity Unicef was the beneficiary. Other players included celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, sprinter Ben Johnson, Patrick Keilty, Brian McFadden and ex Formula 1 driver Eddie Irvine (all RotW) and Robbie Williams, Jonathan Wilkes, David Grey, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Angus Deaton (England).

Is a huge soccer fan.

Son-in-law of writer John Mortimer.

Older brother of Adrian Nivola, who also went to Yale.