Augusta Katherine Corvino-Smith (12 November 1980) is a British-American actress. Known professionally as Augusta Corvino, she is best known for her role as Molly Stearns in The Ides of March. She is currently starring in Showtime's Penny Dreadful .
Early Life
Corvino was born in Shanghai, China, to Josephine Corvino, a political science professor, and Patrick Smith, a celebrated painter and sculptor. Her father is of English and Welsh descent, and a long-time resident in Japan and China. Her mother, a native of Seattle, Washington, was a visiting scholar at Fudan University in Shanghai, later associate professor at the university's School of International Relations and Public Affairs. The family returned to the United States when Corvino was four years old, settling in Daly City, California.
She attended San Fracisco School of the Arts, enrolling in the theatre track. In high school, she was featured as Abigail Williams in The Crucible and co-adapted and co-starred as "Queen Claudia" in a gender-swapped version of Hamlet as her senior project. Upon graduating in 1998, Corvino attended the University of California, Berkeley, double-majoring in Theater & Performance Studies and English. While on vacation in Hubei, China, with her family in the summer of 1999, she chanced upon renowned director Ang Lee and screenwriter James Schamus (a fellow Cal alumnus) on-set filming Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Corvino often named the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon scribe as one of her greatest professional idols, with The Ice Storm as one of her all-time favorite films.
She kept contact with Schamus throughout her undergraduate years, and would continue to participate in other Lee-Schamus productions, namely, Hulk and Brokeback Mountain. With her focus shifted to flmmaking and screenwriting, Corvino applied and was accepted to the MFA in Screenwriting program at the AFI Conservatory in 2003. When she was cast in M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, however, she chose to defer enrollment.
Career
Although she has decided on a focus of screenwriting, a chance audition with M. Night Shyamalan won him over and Corvino was cast as Ivy Walker in The Village. On deferring her AFI Conservatory admission, Corvino has said, "it was a hard decision, especially with the Conservatory being such a prestigious institution in this business.. but in the end I just couldn't put acting down, not yet." Corvino continued her career after being hand-picked by Woody Allen for the modern-day risque drama Match Point and a role in the ensemble film Bobby, a fictionalized account of the hours leading up to the shooting of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy. With these films under her belt, she decided to officially enroll into the AFI Conservatory, as part of the 2006 Cohort.
Her hiatus from the public eye was finally over as she returned in 2008, as she took on the role of Molly in Beau Willimon's Farragut North, a dramatic play showing the behind-the-scene corruption and power plays of political campaigns. The play was featured Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company, and Corvino would later reprise the role in its film version, The Ides of March. She followed up her Off-Broadway perfoamnce with the film Chloe in 2009. Inspired by the French film Nathalie..., Corvino adapted it to an American audience, carrying with it a similar stance of erotic thriller as its predecessor.
Personal Life
Because of her father's residential records, he had been subjected to inspection and interrogation of the two countries for espionage. These allegations and suspicions were later dropped in 1980. Corvino has never formally elaborated on these allegations, often citing privacy concerns whenever the subject is mentioned.
As a result of being born of an American mother and a British father, Corvino possesses both American and British citizenship by birth. "I've always felt more at ease in the States," Corvino has stated regarding this topic. "The citizenships feel very much just like logistics; it really is cliched but I truly left my heart in San Francisco."
Corvino has described her family as "bourgeois", and often credits her parents for influencing her towards academics and the arts. A self-proclaimed "nerd," Corvino has stated that she enjoys taking free online courses from websites such as Khan Academy and Coursera.
She attended San Fracisco School of the Arts, enrolling in the theatre track. In high school, she was featured as Abigail Williams in The Crucible and co-adapted and co-starred as "Queen Claudia" in a gender-swapped version of Hamlet as her senior project. Upon graduating in 1998, Corvino attended the University of California, Berkeley, double-majoring in Theater & Performance Studies and English. While on vacation in Hubei, China, with her family in the summer of 1999, she chanced upon renowned director Ang Lee and screenwriter James Schamus (a fellow Cal alumnus) on-set filming Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Corvino often named the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon scribe as one of her greatest professional idols, with The Ice Storm as one of her all-time favorite films.
She kept contact with Schamus throughout her undergraduate years, and would continue to participate in other Lee-Schamus productions, namely, Hulk and Brokeback Mountain. With her focus shifted to flmmaking and screenwriting, Corvino applied and was accepted to the MFA in Screenwriting program at the AFI Conservatory in 2003. When she was cast in M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, however, she chose to defer enrollment.
Her hiatus from the public eye was finally over as she returned in 2008, as she took on the role of Molly in Beau Willimon's Farragut North, a dramatic play showing the behind-the-scene corruption and power plays of political campaigns. The play was featured Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company, and Corvino would later reprise the role in its film version, The Ides of March. She followed up her Off-Broadway perfoamnce with the film Chloe in 2009. Inspired by the French film Nathalie..., Corvino adapted it to an American audience, carrying with it a similar stance of erotic thriller as its predecessor.
As a result of being born of an American mother and a British father, Corvino possesses both American and British citizenship by birth. "I've always felt more at ease in the States," Corvino has stated regarding this topic. "The citizenships feel very much just like logistics; it really is cliched but I truly left my heart in San Francisco."
Corvino has described her family as "bourgeois", and often credits her parents for influencing her towards academics and the arts. A self-proclaimed "nerd," Corvino has stated that she enjoys taking free online courses from websites such as Khan Academy and Coursera.
