While Minghella was growing up he spent time on his father's film sets. He has said that he has "fond memories" of them and that he felt "no pressure" from his father to succeed in the entertainment industry.[3] He was educated at St Anthony's Preparatory School and University College School in Hampstead. He then attended Columbia University, which he considered his "first priority", and studied history,[4] graduating in 2009. He was a resident of John Jay Hall during his studies at Columbia.[5] He typically worked on films only during his summer breaks. He has said that he felt like "an English boy at an American school", that he kept to himself, and that most of his fellow students did not know that he was an actor.[6][7]
Heritage
Minghella's father was born on the Isle of Wight, and was of Italian descent. His mother, who was from Hong Kong, is from a family of multiple heritage. His maternal grandfather George Choa was of three-quarters Chinese and one-quarter Jewish descent, and his maternal grandmother Maisie Nora (née Kotewall)[8][6] was of Indian Parsi, English, Irish, Swedish and Chinese ancestry.
Minghella was inspired to become an actor during his young years, after seeing a production of the play This Is Our Youth in London's West End; he subsequently dropped out of the University College School to pursue an acting career, and attended the National Youth Theatre.[4] He did not always want to become an actor. He said: "I thought it was sort of embarrassing to say you wanted to be an actor – it was, like, uncool. And growing up I was massively concerned with seeming cool. I thought up until about age 16 that I was going to be a music video director."[14]
Minghella had an uncredited appearance as an extra in his father's film Cold Mountain.[15] His first professional role was in Bee Season, playing the son of a dysfunctional Jewish American family. The film was released in November 2005 to mostly mixed reviews and low box office, grossing only $1 million in its limited release,[16][17] although critics remarked that Minghella was "a talented young actor to watch, delivering a strong performance".[18]
Minghella's other November 2005 role was the political thriller Syriana in which he played the son of George Clooney's CIA agent character. In 2006, he starred in the Daniel Clowes adaptation Art School Confidential, a comedy directed by Terry Zwigoff. He got the part after meeting Zwigoff when he visited the set of Bee Season.[6] His film Elvis and Anabelle, a dark romantic drama in which he plays an undertaker's son, premiered at the South by Southwest film festival in 2007. He described it as "a really sweet film".[6] He was to play Art Bechstein in the film version of writer Michael Chabon's novel The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, but dropped out of the project due to his university schedule.[19]
In David Fincher's The Social Network, the 2010 film about the origins of Facebook,[23] he plays Divya Narendra, one of the Harvard upperclassmen who sues Mark Zuckerberg for stealing the idea behind Facebook. In June 2010, Minghella was cast in the Russian science-fiction film The Darkest Hour, released in December 2011.[24] He appeared in the ensemble dramedy 10 Years (2012). The following year, he had a supporting role as Graham Hawtrey in the comedy The Internship.
In November 2013, it was announced that Minghella would be playing Richie Castellano in the second season of the Fox sitcom The Mindy Project.[25] In 2013, he appeared in the music video for "Shot at the Night" by The Killers.[26]
^Minghella's maternal great-grandfather and great-grandmother were Hong Kong legislator Sir Robert Kotewall (half-Indian Parsi and half-Chinese) and Edith Kotewall (née Lowcock)[9] (her father George Lowcock was half-English and half-Irish, and her mother, née Jönsson/Johnsford, was half-Swedish),[10][11] and his maternal great-great-grandfather was Calcutta-born Italian Jewish businessman Emanuel Raphael Belilios (through Belilios' daughter Maria Felicie, mother of George Choa).[12][13]
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