Early life

Ventimiglia was born in Anaheim, California, the son of Carol (née Wilson) and Peter Ventimiglia, a Vietnam veteran. His father is of Sicilian descent and his mother is of English and Scottish descent. The youngest of three children, he has two older sisters, Leslie and Laurel. He 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, actor Sylvester Stallone, with whom he worked in Rocky Balboa.

Ventimiglia attended El Modena High School in Orange, California, where he wrestled, acted in drama productions and held the office of president in student government. He graduated in 1995. At eighteen years of age, Ventimiglia studied at the American Conservatory Theater for their summer program. He attended UCLA as a theatre major before getting a scholarship to a music school in San Francisco.

Career

Acting

At 18 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. From there, Ventimiglia studied at UCLA before landing a role on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. He has 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.

From 2001 to 2004, Ventimiglia played brooding teen Jess Mariano on Gilmore Girls; he was introduced in the second season as a main cast member. In season four he dropped down to a guest star/recurring cast member, and he came back for two episodes in season six. He signed on for a spin-off of Gilmore Girls called Windward Circle which was 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.

In the third and final season of 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. Pierce evades the draft, fearing he will be forced to fight in the Vietnam War, where Meg Pryor's older brother, J.J. (Will Estes) was wounded. 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 but 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 sixth Rocky installment Rocky Balboa which was released in December 2006.

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. Ventimiglia also starred in the Xavier Gens apocalypse thriller film, The Divide.

Ventimiglia was the voice of Wolverine in the English dub of the Marvel Anime: Wolverine anime series and reprised his role in an episode of the Marvel Anime: Iron Man and an episode of Marvel Anime: Blade. He did not return to voice Wolverine in Marvel Anime: X-Men, due to that series portraying an older Wolverine, instead Wolverine was voiced by Steven Blum. He played Ned Stax, a former marine, in Frank Darabont's short-lived neo-noir crime drama Mob City for TNT. Ventimiglia stars in the upcoming suspense thriller Devil’s Gate, alongside Amanda Schull.

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 he co-owns and operates with best friend Russ Cundiff), Ventimiglia 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, 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 the producer. In 2005, Divide Pictures created the DSC, or Divide Social Club, an online and global social network for like-minded people co-founded by Ventimiglia with his best friends Cundiff and Dino DeMilio, a radio producer for The Tom Leykis Show. Ventimiglia, 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 Barrett, 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.

Personal life

Ventimiglia and fellow former Gilmore Girls co-star Alexis Bledel dated for three and a half years (approximately from December 2002); the relationship ended sometime before July 2006. Ventimiglia also dated his Heroes co-star Hayden Panettiere from December 2007 to February 2009.

Ventimiglia is a lifelong lacto-vegetarian and was named People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' Sexiest Vegetarian in 2009. He also does not smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol. He is a fan of seminal British punk band The Clash, and is an avid skateboard fan.

Ventimiglia took a United Service Organization tour from July 6 to 12, 2008 in support of American troops in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is active on behalf of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) helping in April 2009 to launch a national public service advertisement campaign, SupportYourVet.org, which gives friends and family of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans tools to support their transition home from war.

Filmography

Film

Acting roles in film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
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	Robert Balboa Jr.
2008	Pathology	Ted Grey
2009	Gamer	Rick Rape
2009	Armored	Officer Eckehart
2010	Order of Chaos	Rick
2011	Divide, TheThe Divide	Josh
2012	That's My Boy	Chad
2012	Static	Jonathan Dade
2013	Kiss of the Damned	Paulo
2013	Grown Ups 2	Frat Boy Milo
2013	Breaking at the Edge	Ian Wood
2013	Killing Season	Chris Ford
2014	Grace of Monaco	Rupert Allan
2014	Tell	Tell
2015	Walter	Vince
2015	Wild Card	Danny DeMarco
2015	Devil’s Gate	Jackson Pritchard	In post-production

Television

Acting roles in TV

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	Lead role: 8 episodes
2000	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Bobby Taylor	Episode: "Friends & Lovers"
2001-06	Gilmore Girls	Jess Mariano	Main role in seasons 2-3, special guest in seasons 4 & 6; 37 episodes
2003	Windward Circle	Jess Mariano	Pilot that was not picked up
2003	Boston Public	Jake Provesserio	3 episodes
2003	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Lee Healy	Episode: "Escape"
2004-05	American Dreams	Chris Pierce	12 episodes
2006	Bedford Diaries, TheThe Bedford Diaries	Richard Thorne III	Main role (8 episodes)
2006-10	Heroes	Peter Petrelli	Main role (seasons 1-4; 70 episodes)
2008	Robot Chicken	Green Arrow	Episode: "They Took My Thumbs"
2011	Suite 7	Milo	Episode: "That Guy"
2011	The Temp Life	Cook	2 episodes
2011	Marvel Anime	Wolverine	12 episodes
2013	Mob City	Ned Stax	Main role (6 episodes)
2013-14	Chosen	Ian Mitchell	Lead role (12 episodes)
2014	Ultimate Spider-Man	Spider-Man Noir	2 episodes
2015	Gotham	Jason Lennon/The Ogre	Recurring role
2015	The Whispers	Sean Bennigan	Main role
2015	The League	Agent Baker	Episode: "The Block"
2016	Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life	Jess Mariano
2016	This Is Us

Voice roles in video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	X-Men: Destiny	Grant Alexander

Other credits

Directing

Year	Title	Notes
2007	It's a Mall World	Miniseries; 13 episodes
2009	Dave Knoll Finds His Soul
2010	Ultradome	Episode: Han Solo vs. Indiana Jones
2011	Suite 7	Episode: "That Guy"

Producing

Year	Title	Notes
2007	It's a Mall World	Producer; 13 episodes
2007	Winter Tales	Producer
2009	Dave Knoll Finds His Soul	Executive producer
2010	Ultradome	Executive producer; 3 episodes
2011	Suite 7	Producer; episode: "That Guy"
2012	Static	Executive producer
2013	The PET Squad Files	Executive producer; 6 episodes
2013-14	Chosen	Executive producer; 18 episodes
2014	Tell	Producer

Writing

Year	Title	Notes
2010	Ultradome	Co-creator

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Work	Result
2007	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Actor Drama	Heroes	Nominated
2008	Saturn Awards	Best Supporting Actor on Television	Heroes	Nominated
2008	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Actor Action	Heroes	Won
2009			Heroes	Nominated

Charities

Milo Ventimiglia supports the following charitable cause: Autism.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]