Max Minghella

Max Giorgio Choa Minghella (born 16 September 1985)^[1] is an English actor. He is known for his roles in the films Syriana (2005), Art School Confidential (2006), Elvis and Anabelle (2007), The Social Network (2010), The Darkest Hour (2011), The Ides of March (2011), The Internship (2013), Horns (2013), and Spiral (2021), as well as his role as Nick Blaine in the television series The Handmaid's Tale (2017–present), which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 2021.

Max Minghella
Minghella in 2024
Born	Max Giorgio Choa Minghella (1985-09-16) 16 September 1985 (age 39) Hampstead, London, England
Education	Columbia University (BA)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1999–present
Parents	Anthony Minghella (father) Carolyn Jane Choa (mother)
Relatives	Loretta Minghella (aunt) Dominic Minghella (uncle) Robert Kotewall (great-grandfather) Emanuel Raphael Belilios (great-great-grandfather)

Early life and family

Minghella was born on 16 September 1985 in Hampstead, London, the son of director Anthony Minghella (1954–2008) and dancer and choreographer Carolyn Jane Choa.^[2]

Minghella's father was born in Ryde 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)^[3][4] was of Indian Parsi, English, Irish, Swedish and Chinese ancestry. Sir Robert Kotewall is his great-grandfather.^[α] Olympic swimmer Robyn Lamsam is his second cousin through the Kotewalls.

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.^[10] 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,^[11] graduating in 2009. He was a resident of John Jay Hall during his studies at Columbia.^[12] 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.^[4][13]

Career

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.^[11] 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] One critic who rated the film "7 out of 10" 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.^[4] 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".^[4] 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]

Minghella in 2010 (cropped)

The press reported in 2007 that Minghella was cast in Beeban Kidron's Hippie Hippie Shake, a film about writer Richard Neville set in 1960s London.^[20] In March 2008, it was announced that he would star in Alejandro Amenábar's second English language film, Agora.^[21] The film is set in 4th century Egypt and revolves around Hypatia of Alexandria. Later in 2008, Minghella played a pompous film director in How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, and was seen in a segment of the dark comedy Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.^[22]

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 has been playing the role of Nick Blaine, an Eye in the Republic of Gilead and the love interest of June Osborne, in the Hulu dystopian series The Handmaid's Tale since 2017. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for the role in 2021.^[27]

Minghella made his directorial debut with 2018's Teen Spirit, a musical, from his own screenplay.^[28] Minghella starred in the 2022 film Babylon.^[29]

Filmography

Film

List of films and roles

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Toy Boys	Danny	Short film
	Let the Good Times Roll	Boy with dog	Short film
2005	Bee Season	Aaron Naumann
	Syriana	Robby Barnes
2006	Art School Confidential	Jerome Platz
2007	Elvis and Anabelle	Elvis
2008	How to Lose Friends & Alienate People	Vincent Lepak
2009	Brief Interviews with Hideous Men	Kevin (Subject No. 28)
	Agora	Davus
2010	The Social Network	Divya Narendra	Hollywood Film Festival for Ensemble of the Year Palm Springs International Film Festival Ensemble Cast Award Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Nominated—Central Ohio Film Critics Association for Best Ensemble Nominated—San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by an Ensemble Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated—Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble
2011	The Ides of March	Ben Harpen	Nominated—Central Ohio Film Critics Association for Best Ensemble
	10 Years	AJ
	The Darkest Hour	Ben
2013	The Internship	Graham Hawtrey
	Horns	Lee Tourneau
2014	About Alex	Isaac
	Not Safe for Work	Thomas Miller
2015	Into the Forest	Eli
	Just a Minute	The Voice	Short film
2016	The 9th Life of Louis Drax	Nurse	Uncredited; also screenwriter and producer
	Fluffy	Mark Mason	Short film
2018	Teen Spirit		Director and screenwriter
2021	Spiral	William Schenk / William Emmerson
2022	Babylon	Irving Thalberg	Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2023	Maximum Truth	Antonio Kelly-Zhang
TBA	Shell		Post-production; Director

Television

List of television appearances and roles

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2013– 2017	The Mindy Project	Richie Castellano	8 episodes
2017– present	The Handmaid's Tale	Nick Blaine	Main role Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2021) Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2018–19, 2022)

Notes

1. 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)^[5] (her father George Lowcock was half-English and half-Irish, and her mother, née Jönsson/Johnsford, was half-Swedish),^[6][7] and his maternal great-great-grandfather was Calcutta-born Italian Jewish businessman Emanuel Raphael Belilios (through Belilios' daughter Maria Felicie, mother of George Choa).^[8][9]