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"You have to live Plan A - on any level. Make it a lowercase 'A' if you have to, but live your Plan A. Anything else belittles the importance of life." ~ Vin Diesel
Birth Name: Mark Vincent
Born: July 18, 1967
Birth Place: New York, New York
Hair: Black (if it wasn't shaved)
Height: 6'2
Marital Status: Single
Ethnicity: Multicultural
Siblings: A fraternal twin brother, Paul Vincent, and two sisters
Parents: Raised by his mother (an astrologer and psychologist) and stepfather (an actor and drama professor)
Hobbies/Other Interests: Yoga, Snow boarding, Playstation, Dungeons and Dragons, Comic books/Heavy Metal Magazine, Classic Movies, Italian cooking
Previous Jobs: Telemarketer and Bouncer (9 years)
Education: Attended Hunter College in New York for two years with a major in English (to prepare for screenwriting)
Vin Admires: Mel Gibson and Morgan Freeman
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Biography:
Vin Diesel grew up in a government-funded building in New York's Greenwich Village. A budding filmmaker, as well as an actor, a chance encounter that led to Diesel's acting career occurred when he was seven years of age. Vin and his friends had broken into a local theater, and rather than getting caught and reprimanded for trespassing, Diesel and his buds were handed scripts and were offered $20 dollars per week, on the condition that they show up after school every day. This served as Vin's first "real" paying job in �Theater for the New City� produced in Greenwich Village and continued to work in New York theater throughout his adolescents, and at 17 became a bouncer at some of New York's hippest clubs to earn himself some extra cash. It was at this time that he changed his name to 'Vin Diesel'.
Diesel later majored in English (creative writing) at Hunter College, only to quit after 3 years and move to Hollywood. He returned to New York after a year and soon began penning screenplays and making films. At the age of 26, he wrote, directed, produced, starred in and financed his debut film, a short entitled "Multi-Facial,� which screened at Cannes Film Festival (1995); Vin returned to Los Angeles and raised almost $50,000 through telemarketing to fund the making of his first full-length feature, "Strays", which he starred in, directed and produced. Competing at Sundance Film Festival in 1997, he has since entered into a deal with MTV to adapt it into a television series. Upon viewing "Multi-Facial," Steven Spielberg created the role of Private Adrian Carpazo, specifically for Diesel in his blockbuster film "Saving Private Ryan."
Following the success of �Saving Private Ryan�, Diesel could be heard voicing the title character of the animated �The Iron Giant�. He then starred in �Boiler Room� an off-Wall Street drama. In between writing and directing his second feature, "Doormen," an original screenplay based in part on his own experiences as a bouncer at New York City nightclubs, Diesel found time to star in the science-fiction drama "Pitch Black". The action-packed street racing picture �The Fast and the Furious�, action adventure "XXX", and the mob comedy, "Knockaround Guys" solidified his mega-stardom.
Filmography:
Actor
� Riddick ... as Richard B. Riddick(2004)
� XXX2 ... as Xander Cage(2004)
� A Man Apart ... as Sean Vetter(2003)
� Knockaround Guys ... as Taylor Reese(2002)
� XXX ... as Xander Cage(2002)
� The Fast and the Furious ....as Dominic Toretto(2001)
� Boiler Room ....as Chris Varick(2000)
� Pitch Black ....as Richard B. Riddick(2000)
� Saving Private Ryan ....as Private Adrian Caparzo(1998)
Executive Producer
� XXX (2002)
Voice
� The Iron Giant (1999)