Alessandro Nivola began his acting career after 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 opposite 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 Paltrow in William Shakespear's As You Like It at the Williamstown Theater Festival.