Giovanni Ribisi (born Antonino Giovanni Ribisi; December 17, 1974) is an American actor. His film credits include The Other Sister, Gone in 60 Seconds, Boiler Room, Saving Private Ryan, The Mod Squad, The Gift, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Lost in Translation and more recently, Public Enemies, Avatar and Ted. He is also known for his role as Phoebe Buffay's half-brother Frank on the sitcom Friends.

 

Early life

Ribisi was born in Los Angeles, California. Ribisi's mother, Gay (née Landrum), is a manager of actors and writers, and his father, Albert Anthony Ribisi, is a musician who had been the keyboard player in People! (a band whose cover version of "I Love You" reached No. 14 on Billboard's Hot 100, in the spring of 1968). Ribisi is the twin brother of actress Marissa Ribisi, and the brother of Gina Ribisi, a voice actress. Ribisi is of Italian (from his paternal grandfather), German, and English descent.

 

Career

Ribisi began his career in network television with recurring and guest roles on a number of shows, including The New Leave It to Beaver, Married With Children, The Wonder Years and My Two Dads. He entered the public eye with a prominent performance in The X-Files episode "D.P.O." (an episode that also starred Jack Black), as well as with his recurring role as Frank Jr., the brother of Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) on Friends, but also starred as an extra earlier on in season 2 "The One with the Baby on the Bus". Between 2005-2008, he has appeared in multiple episodes of My Name Is Earl as the recurring character Ralph, earning a 2007 Emmy nomination for his performance on the series.

 

Ribisi has appeared on the video of British band Keane's single "Crystal Ball", which was released worldwide on August 21, 2006. He appeared with Winona Ryder and John C. Reilly in Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's music video "Talk About the Blues". In September 2008, he appeared twice on the HBO comedy series Entourage.

 

Personal life

Ribisi married actress Mariah O'Brien in 1997. They divorced in 2001. Together they have a daughter, Lucia Santina (born August 6, 1997). On June 16, 2012, Ribisi married his second wife, British model Agyness Deyn. Before this marriage, Ribisi was in a relationship starting in 2006 with indie rock singer-songwriter Chan Marshall (Cat Power).

 

Ribisi is an active Scientologist,and participated in the gala opening of Scientology's "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death" Museum in December 2005.His twin sister, Marissa, is married to musician Beck; both are also Scientologists.Ribisi's daughter Lucia was featured on Beck's album The Information and two of Sia's albums, Some People Have Real Problems and We Are Born.

Filmography

Year	Film/TV	Role	Notes
1985	Twilight Zone	Teddy	TV: 1 Episode
1985-1989	Still the Beaver	Duffy Guthrie	TV: 15 Episodes
1987–1988	Married...With Children	Teddy	TV: 2 Episodes
1987–1990	My Two Dads	Cory Kupkus	TV: 29 Episodes Nominated: Young Artist Award, Best Young Actor
1990–1991	Blossom	Mitchell	TV: 2 Episodes
1991–1992	Davis Rules	Skinner Buckley	TV: 16 Episodes
1993	The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom	Pete Reyes	TV
	The Wonder Years	Jeff Bilings	TV: 15 Episodes Nominated: Young Artist Award, Best Young Actor
	The Commish	Joey Burke	TV: 2 Episodes
	Family Album	Elvis DeMattis	TV: 6 Episodes
1994	Walker, Texas Ranger	Tony Kingston	TV: 2 Episodes
	Ellen	Cashier	TV: 1 Episode
1995	The X-Files	Darin Peter Oswald	TV: 1 Episode
	The Outpost	Scott
1996–2004	Friends	Frank Buffay, Jr.	TV: 9 Episodes
1996	SubUrbia	Jeff
	That Thing You Do!	Chad
1997	First Love, Last Rites	Joey
	The Postman	Bandit 20
	Lost Highway	Steve V.
1998	Saving Private Ryan	T-5 Medic Irwin Wade	OSCF Award for Best Cast Nominated: Screen Actors Guild Award, Ensemble Cast (shared)
	Some Girl	Jason
1999	The Other Sister	Daniel McMann
	The Mod Squad	Peter
2000	Boiler Room	Seth Davis	Nominated: Teen Choice Award for Choice Liar
	The Gift	Buddy Cole	Nominated: Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated: Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
	Gone in 60 Seconds	Kip Raines
	The Virgin Suicides	Narrator	Voice Only
2001	According to Spencer	Louis
2002	Heaven	Filippo	Pula Film Festival, Best Actor Award
2003	Basic	Kendall
	Cold Mountain	Junior
	I Love Your Work	Gray Evans
	Lost in Translation	John
	Masked and Anonymous	Soldier
2004	Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow	Dexter "Dex" Dearborn	Nominated: Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
	Flight of the Phoenix	Elliott
	Love's Brother	Angelo Donnini
2005	The Big White	Ted
2005-2009	My Name Is Earl	Ralph Mariano	TV: 6 Episodes
2006	10th & Wolf	Joey
	The Dead Girl	Rudy
	The Dog Problem	Solo
2007	Gardener of Eden	Vic
	Perfect Stranger	Miles Haley
2008	Entourage	Nick	TV: 2 Episodes
	Spirit of the Forest	Cebolo
2009	Public Enemies	Alvin Karpis
	Avatar	Parker Selfridge	Nominated: Teen Choice Award for Choice Hissy Fit
2010	Middle Men	Wayne Beering
	Columbus Circle	Detective Paul Giardello	Also Executive Producer
2011	The Rum Diary	Moberg
2012	Contraband	Tim Briggs
	Ted	Donny
	Gangster Squad	Conway Keeler	post-production
2013	The Other Side	Sean Splinter	in production
	Waco	David Koresh	in production