Milo Ventimiglia (born July 8, 1977) is an American television actor best known for his role of Peter Petrelli on the TV series Heroes.
Ventimiglia was born in Orange County, California, the son of Carol (née Wilson) and Peter Ventimiglia. His father is of Sicilian descent and his mother has English, Irish, Scottish, French, and Cherokee Indian ancestry. His last name, Ventimiglia, is the name of a town of Ventimiglia in Liguria, Italy, which later gave its name to another city, Ventimiglia di Sicilia. Ventimiglia also means 'twenty miles' in Italian. The youngest of three children, he has two older sisters. He has explained in an interview with USA Today that his "crooked mouth" is a result of dead nerves on the left side, which cause that side to remain immobile, much like, incidentally, Sylvester Stallone, with whom he worked in Rocky Balboa.
Ventimiglia attended El Modena High School in Orange, California, where he wrestled and held the office of president in student government. He graduated in 1995. At eighteen years of age, Ventimiglia received a scholarship to study at the American Conservatory Theater for their summer program. He attended UCLA as an English major for four years, but did not graduate.