[3] His father, Sean Gervasi, was an American economist who had worked as an economic advisor to President John F. Kennedy in the White House, was an expert in Yugoslav affairs and had taught at the University of Oxford, the London School of Economics and at the University of Paris in Vincennes-Saint-Denis.

[4][5] His uncle, Tom Gervasi, was an expert on intelligence matters and author of the Myth of Soviet Military Supremacy and the Arsenal of Democracy series.

[8] Gervasi's first position was to work for the 18th Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Ted Hughes, at the Arvon Writing Foundation.

Gervasi moved to Los Angeles in 1995 to attend the graduate screenwriting programme at UCLA Film School, where he twice won the BAFTA/LA scholarship.

While in the programme, he supported himself by working as a journalist, writing for newspapers and magazines, including The Sunday Times, The Observer, and Punch.

In 2009, Gervasi presented Steven Zaillian with the Austin Film Festival's Distinguished Screenwriter Award.

[21] A 2017 New York Post Decider article on the movie said, "almost ten years on from its initial release, Anvil ranks up there with the best rock documentaries ever made.

Helen Mirren was nominated for a BAFTA, SAG Award, and Golden Globe for her performance as Alma Reville.

In August 1993, Gervasi, then a young journalist working for The Mail on Sunday, was sent to Los Angeles to interview a number of high-profile celebrities, as well as Hervé Villechaize, the French actor who starred as Tattoo on the hit American TV series Fantasy Island and as Nick Nack in The Man with the Golden Gun.

[27] His grandfather Frank Gervasi was Rome bureau chief for Hearst's International News Service and joined Collier's Weekly at the start of World War II, covering the fall of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.

[28] His grandmother was Katherine McQuiggan from Philadelphia, but his grandfather Frank remarried, to singer Georgia Gibbs, years before Gervasi was born.

While in London, Gervasi co-founded the music group Future Primitives with Gavin Rossdale, playing drums, but left the year before they changed their name to Bush.