Nivola graduated from Yale University with a BA in English in 1994. A year later he made his Broadway debut opposite
Helen Mirren in
A Month in the Country, earning a Drama Desk Award nomination. That year he also starred opposite
Gwyneth Paltrow in the 1995
Williamstown Theater Festival production of Shakespeare's
As You Like It. Shortly after that came his breakthrough performance in John Woo's feature film
Face/Off (1997), playing Nicolas Cage's brother Pollux Troy. In the ensuing years he has starred in many films, including
Mansfield Park (1999), ''
Love's Labour's Lost (2000), Jurassic Park III (2001), Laurel Canyon (2002), Junebug (2005), Goal! 1
& 2
(2005, 2007), Coco Before Chanel (2009), Ginger & Rosa (2012), American Hustle (2013), A Most Violent Year (2014), Selma (2014), The Neon Demon (2016), One Percent More Humid (2017), You Were Never Really Here (2017), Disobedience (2017), The Art of Self Defense (2019), and The Red Sea Diving Resort (2019). He played Dickie Moltisanti, the lead role in The Many Saints of Newark'',
David Chase's feature film prequel to his television series
The Sopranos. In 2022, he appeared in
David O. Russell's
Amsterdam opposite
Christian Bale and
Margot Robbie, as well as the comedy feature
Spin Me Round opposite
Alison Brie and
Aubrey Plaza. Nivola worked frequently in television, starring opposite
Robert De Niro in
Barry Levinson's Madoff family biopic
The Wizard of Lies (2017), as well as the TNT miniseries
The Company (2007), the UK Channel 4 series
Chimerica (2019), and the three-part BBC miniseries
Black Narcissus, broadcast 27, 28, and 29 December 2020. Onstage, he starred off-Broadway in a revival of the
Sam Shepard play
A Lie of the Mind (2010), with
Laurie Metcalf and directed by
Ethan Hawke. On Broadway, he starred in 2013 in
The Winslow Boy and in 2014 in the revival
The Elephant Man opposite
Bradley Cooper (for which he earned a Tony Award nomination). In 2013, Nivola established King Bee Productions with his wife
Emily Mortimer. The company produced two seasons of the half-hour comedy
Doll & Em for HBO and BSkyB. He also produced
To Dust, starring
Matthew Broderick. It won the Audience Award at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for a 2020 Independent Spirit Award. In 2024, Nivola appeared in Sony's
Kraven the Hunter film, in which he played
Spider-Man antagonist
The Rhino. ==Personal life==