Mykhailo Farmiga is best known as the father of award-winning Hollywood actresses Vera and Taissa Farmiga. Unlike his daughters, who don’t shy from cameras, Mykhailo Farmiga prefers to keep to himself. So, what exactly do we know about the father of seven?
Who Is Mykhailo Farmiga?
Mykhailo Farmiga was born on January 19, 1942, in Ukraine. He was raised by Ukrainian parents alongside seven siblings. His father was a farmer, while his mother was a homemaker. He completed his schooling in Ukraine and earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
In 1970, Mykhailo Farmiga immigrated to the United States with his wife, Lubomyra “Luba” Farmiga—a schoolteacher—and their children. The family initially settled in Irvington, New Jersey, where Mykhailo worked as a systems analyst. When Vera turned 12, Mykhailo moved his family to Flemington, New Jersey.
Mykhailo and Lubomyra are proud of their Ukrainian heritage. He taught his kids how to speak Ukrainian and enrolled his older children in a Ukrainian Catholic school in the US.
Vera, Mykhailo’s second-oldest child, didn’t learn English until she was 6. And, in their Flemington home, Mykhailo and his wife raised animals just as their parents did in Ukraine.
“Each child got to choose a pet, and mine was a sheep,” Vera shared in a 2009 interview with Inside Jersey. “I bottle-fed it, and it ran around our backyard. I think maybe I was a shepherdess in a past life.”
Mykhailo also enjoyed playing music and dancing with his family.
“Every holiday and holy day, my gigantic family would get together, and a couple of people would play guitars while I would sit by the piano and sing, trying to find new harmonies in the same old repertoire songs,” Vera told Vulture in a 2018 interview. “And dance was a major method of learning, a way of passing down stories from history.”
Vera also shared that Mykhailo regularly took her and her siblings road-tripping. “No fancy hotels, but sometimes we’d stop at the Days Inn for a night if we were lucky. All four of us would share one queen-size mattress and our parents would take the other one,” she said.
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Mykhailo Values Faith
In a 2011 interview with Christianity Today, Vera claims that they were raised in a “Catholic-turned Christian” home. “My father instilled in me…to define God, to define holiness for myself,” she told the outlet. “That was my parents’ number one lesson for us. They are men and women of God, and that’s where they operate from.”
Mykhailo Supports His Children’s Ambitions
Mykhailo and Lubomyra raised their children in an environment that fostered creativity and ambition. “[My parents] are very sensible and grounded,” Vera told The Guardian. “You know, I’m one of seven, and they want success for all their children.”
Mykhailo and Lubomyra’s children include sons Victor, Stephan, and Alexander, and daughters Vera, Nadia, and Taissa.
Victor, Stephan, and Alexander largely keep themselves out of the spotlight, with little to no information about them mentioned online.
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Victor, the eldest of the six, has openly supported Vera in her movies. In one instance, he tagged his sister in a now-deleted video he made of himself singing “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads as a way to promote season 4 of her thriller series Bates Motel.
Stephan, meanwhile, followed in his father’s footsteps and runs a landscaping business called Heaven On Earth Landscaping.
Alexander is the most private of the bunch, with his only known online presence being a private Instagram account with 150 followers.
Vera, Laryssa, and Nadia are more open about themselves. Vera is a well-known Hollywood actress, known for her award-winning roles in The Conjuring, Annabelle Comes Home, and Up in the Air.
Nadia has pursued a career in the entertainment industry as well, appearing in Vera’s first directorial film, Higher Ground, in 2011, when she was 17, as well as The Bling Ring (2013), The Nun (2018), and The Nun II (2023).
Nadia Farmiga, on the other hand, runs a catering company called Misto Eats that specializes in Ukrainian and Brazilian cuisine.
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Mykhailo Farmiga’s Net Worth
Since he’s a private individual, Mykhailo’s exact net worth is unknown. Some state that he has a net worth of around $1 million, but there’s no verifiable source to back up this claim.
At 83 years old, Mykhailo and his wife are enjoying a life of retirement. Vera Farmiga, the most successful in the family with a net worth of $10 million, is known to be very close to her family and likely takes care of all her parents’ needs.
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