Background and career
Milo Anthony Ventimiglia ( ven-tih-MEEL-yə; born July 8, 1977) is an American actor. Making his screen acting debut on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1995, he portrayed the lead role on the short-lived series Opposite Sex in 2000 before landing his breakthrough role as Jess Mariano in Gilmore Girls (2001–2006). Ventimiglia starred as Peter Petrelli in the superhero series Heroes (2006–2010). After appearing in main roles in the series Mob City (2013), Chosen (2013), and The Whispers (2015), he starred as Jack Pearson on This Is Us (2016–2022), for which he has received three nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. He also starred in the drama series The Company You Keep (2023). In film, Ventimiglia made his breakthrough as Rocky Balboa's son in the sixth installment of the Rocky series, Rocky Balboa (2006), and reprised his role in the eighth installment Creed II (2018). He has also appeared in Pathology (2008), That's My Boy (2012), Kiss of the Damned (2013), Grace of Monaco (2014), Devil's Gate (2017), and The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019).
Milo Anthony Ventimiglia was born on July 8, 1977, in Anaheim, California, the youngest child of Carol and Peter Ventimiglia, the latter being a Vietnam War veteran. He has two sisters. Ventimiglia is of Sicilian descent through his father, and of English and Scottish descent through his mother. He has a self-described "crooked mouth," having been born with damaged facial nerves causing the left side of his mouth to remain immobile – much like actor Sylvester Stallone, with whom he worked in Rocky Balboa. Ventimiglia attended El Modena High School in Orange, California, where he competed in wrestling, acted in drama productions and served as student government president. He graduated in 1995. At 18, Ventimiglia studied at the American Conservatory Theater for their summer program, subsequently attending the University of California, Los Angeles as a theater major.
At eighteen, Ventimiglia pursued an acting career, first starring as a gay teenager in Must Be the Music, a short film released as part of Strand Releasing's Boys Life 2. He enrolled at UCLA before landing a role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, guest starring on television series including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Boston Public. He played Jed Perry, in the short-lived Fox TV series, Opposite Sex, which originally aired in 2000.
From 2001 to 2006, Ventimiglia played brooding teen Jess Mariano on Gilmore Girls; he was introduced in the second season as a leading cast member. 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. Afterward, he dropped down to a guest star/recurring cast member, and he came back for four episodes in season four and two episodes in season six. In the third and final season of American Dreams, Ventimiglia played Chris Pierce, the rebellious boyfriend of Meg Pryor (Brittany Snow). He starred in the mid-season replacement series The Bedford Diaries. 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.
In between television work, Ventimiglia had supporting roles in the horror films Cursed (2005), directed by Wes Craven, and Stay Alive (2006), as well as starring roles in the short film Intelligence and the full-length feature Dirty Deeds (2005). The same year, he was cast as 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 series Heroes, a show about "ordinary" people discovering they have superpowers, and portrayed the character until the series' conclusion in 2010. Ventimiglia also produced and developed a mini web-series called It's a Mall World as part of a marketing campaign for American Eagle Outfitters in 2007. 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 as a medical student in the horror film Pathology. The film co-starred Charmed actress Alyssa Milano and was directed by Marc Schölermann for MGM.
In 2004, Milo Ventimiglia co-founded DiVide Pictures with producer Russ Cundiff. The American production company develops scripted and unscripted content across film, television, and digital platforms. As of 2024, the company has been involved in the development of over 30 projects for various networks and studios. DiVide Pictures is under an exclusive television development deal with 20th Television, a division of Disney Television Studios. In 2023, it produced The Company You Keep for ABC, in which Ventimiglia starred and served as an executive producer. The company’s film credits include Tell and Static. DiVide has also produced branded content in collaboration with companies such as eBay, Cadillac, and GQ.
