Carmine Giovinazzo

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Carmine Dominick Giovinazzo (born August 24, 1973) is an American actor and singer, known for his role as Detective Danny Messer in CSI:NY

Biography

Early life

Giovinazzo was born and raised on Staten Island, the son of Nancy and Dominick, who was a police officer. He comes from a family of policemen and has Italian (originally from Calabria), Norwegian, Native American and English ancestry. Growing up in the streets of Staten Island, Giovinazzo was an avid athlete; though he played many different sports, baseball and roller hockey were his preferences. He graduated from Port Richmond High School in 1991 and attended Wagner College. He had hoped to become a professional baseball player, but a serious back injury dashed his career plans, so, with the support of his family, he turned to acting. As a child, Giovinazzo participated in making short films, but remembers no particular time when he had the idea to start acting.

Career

In 1997, Giovinazzo moved to Los Angeles. Not long after, he successfully landed his very first Hollywood role in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer pilot, in which his character was the show's first on-screen victim. Afterwards, he appeared in numerous guest-starring roles on television and in film, including Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss, For Love of the Game, The Big Brass Ring and Black Hawk Down. He was also cast as one of the stars of the short-lived UPN sitcom Shasta McNasty. Other films in which he had starring roles include Lions Gate Entertainment' In Enemy Hands with William H. Macy, and Players, with Freddy Rodriguez and Peter Dobson. He played Tony Gianelli, the victim in "Columbo Likes the Nightlife" the last episode of the TV series Columbo.

Giovinazzo is currently cast as forensic scientist Danny Messer on the hit TV series CSI: NY. Giovinazzo is the first actor to appear in all three CSI series; his CSI: NY character was introduced in the CSI: Miami episode "MIA/NYC Nonstop" (along with the other cast members of CSI: NY) and he guest-starred in the third season of the original Las Vegas-based CSI as a street racer named Thumpy G in the episode "Revenge is Best Served Cold". Giovinazzo penned the sixth season vampire-themed episode Sanguine Love, joining co-star Melina Kanakaredes and series lead Gary Sinise, who have also written episodes for the series.

Personal life

Giovinazzo plays the guitar and writes songs and poems in his spare time. He is also a painter, mostly in oils, and one of his paintings appeared in the "Tri-Borough" episode of CSI: NY. He is currently a lead vocalist in his band Ceesau. They released one album in 2008 "Era Of The Exposed" with five songs. The song "Tear To Spare" was played in the CSI:NY sixth season episode Sanguine Love, which was written by Giovinazzo.

He is a cousin of Vincent Giovinazzo, Buddy Giovinazzo, Rick Giovinazzo, and Larry Romano.

Giovinazzo married actress Vanessa Marcil on July 11, 2010 in a private ceremony in New York City with family and closest friends.

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