BIOGRAPHY

Born in New York City on July 18th, 1967, Vin Diesel made his stage debut at the age of seven in "Theatre for the New City," which was produced in Greenwich Village. He continued to be involved with the theatre throughout his adolescence, and he went on to attend the city's Hunter College, where his studies in creative writing lead him to begin writing screenplays. Diesel became active in filmmaking in the early 1990s, first earning notice for the short Multi-Facial, which was selected for screening at the 1995 Cannes Festival. He followed by Multi-Facial with his first feature-length film, 1997's Strays, an urban drama in which he cast himself as a gang boss whose love for a woman inspires him to try to change his ways. Written, directed, and produced by Diesel, the film was selected for competition at the 1997 Sundance Festival, which lead to a deal with MTV to turn it into a series.      Following the success of Saving Private Ryan, Diesel could be heard voicing the title character of the animated The Iron Giant (1999), another critically praised feature. He then starred with fellow young actors Giovanni Ribisi, Ben Affleck, Jamie Kennedy, and Nicky Katt in Boiler Room, an off-Wall Street drama that cast him as one of the members of a shady brokerage firm. He also flexted his sci-fi muscles in Pitch Black (2000), an interplanetary thriller that featured him and fellow Earthlings doing battle with a host of nasty alien mutants. Diesel jumped genres again as a devious, determined hot-rodder in The Fast and the Furious (2001), a cheeky, action-packed street racing picture in the vein

of 1950s exploitation flicks. The low-profile, star-free summer release left skid marks at the box office as it grossed over $40 million in its first weekend alone -- more than enough to cover its production costs, and enough to lead many to believe that Diesel had finally arrived as a bankable leading man.      Indeed Diesel was growing increasingly comfortable in his role as a tough guy action icon, though the ex-NYC club bouncer's prominant smirky scowl (usually accompanied by a hearty smile and laugh) provide almost a wink to his fans that while it worked well for him, he didn't take the image altogether seriously. The following year found Diesel teetering on the edge of mega stardom with the release of his eagerly anticipated reteaming with The Fast and the Furious director Rob Cohen, XXX. With images of a bulky Diesel adorning movie theaters nationwide and an advertising campaign that left almost no viable stone unturned, the duo were undoubtably aiming to repeat the success of the muscle-car extravaganza. This time setting their sights on breathing life into the ailing secret agent

action adventure genre, XXX's protagonist, a former extreme sports athlete recruited by the government to take on a dangerous mission, would prove a large-scale attempt at bringing James Bond style thrills into the 21st century. The film was yet another box office smash for the actor and nearly matched the final box office tally of his previous action outing. Despite all of this success, Diesel surprised many when he announced that he was not returning for The Fast and the Furious 2, instead setting his sights upon appearing in sequels to his Pitch Black and XXX films. (A majority of this biography was taken from Yahoo! Movies. Please click here to view it.)

TRIVIA

BIRTH NAME: Mark Vincent. HEIGHT: 6'2" - He worked as a bouncer in New York. - Has a non-identical twin brother, Paul Vincent, who is a film editor. - Has an Italina Mastiff named "Roman". - Mother is an astrologer. - Has two sisters. - Ranked #46 in Premiere's 2003 annual Power 100 List. Had ranked #95 the previous year. - He's an admitted fan of Dungeons and Dragons, and according to an interview on Conan O'Brian he played for 24 years. - Was offered the role of Matt Murdock / Daredevil that eventually went to Ben Affleck. SALARIES: $11 million for Riddick (2004), $10 million for XXX (2002), $2.5 million for The Fast and the Furious (2001) and $100,000 for Saving Private Ryan (1998).

FILMOGRAPHY

XXX2 (2005) RIDDICK (2004) A MAN APART (2003) KNOCKAROUND GUYS (2002) XXX (2002) THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS (2001) PITCH BLACK (2000) BOILER ROOM (2000) THE IRON GIANT (1999) SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998) STRAYS (1997) MULTI-FACIAL (1994)