Occupation: Actor, Director, Producer, Screenwriter
Real Name: Vin Diesel
Date of Birth: July 18, 1967
Place of Birth: New York, N.Y., USA
Sign: Cancer
Relations: Father: actor, theater teacher; mother: astrologer; twin brother: Paul Vincent (film editor)
Education: Dropped out of Hunter College

Born July 18, 1967, Vin Diesel was destined to become a talented writer, producer, director, and actor.  At just the age of 3 his mother had to stop him from going on to the circus platform of the Ringling Brother's Barnum and Baily Circus to do "his show" .

Diesel started acting at the age of 7 when a lady caught him and his friends vandalizing a theater.  Instead of reporting them to the police she put them to work acting.  This major point in Vin's life directed him towards film and acting.  To improve his English writing skills, and with the encouragement of his father, he attended Hunter College and majored in English so he could learn to write screen plays.

In 1994 he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in first film Multi-facial.  He worked as a bouncer and telemarketer to get the money for his films.  In 1997 his film Strays was in the Sundance Film Festival.  Howerver, it was his performace in Multi-facial that lead Steven Spielberg to have a role written for him in Saving Private Ryan (starring Tom Hanks, Matt Damon and Edward Burns), where he played the Italian-American soldier, Private Caparzo.

Despite the role he played in Saving Private Ryan Vin Diesel does not identify with one race.  

He considers himself "multi-facial."  This doesn't limit him to certain roles as an actor, nor does Diesel limit himself.  In 1999 he was the voice of the Iron Giant in Warner Brother's animation The Iron Giant.

In 2000 Diesel starred in Boiler Room (with Ben Affleck) and the sci-fi thriller Pitch Black.  There will be a Pitch Black 2 because the film made a surprising $40 million off a $23 million budget.  The sequel will get deeper into Vin's character Richard B. Riddick.

Facts about Vin Diesel:

Is reportedly besotted with Entertainment Tonight reporter Maria Menounos - and they began dating after the actor relentlessly chased the former teen beauty.

His supposed demand for a $30 million payday to do THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS sequel, for instance, had eyeballs rolling all over town. Ultimately it was decided that the sequel would shoot without Diesel.

Diesel has been hailed a real-life hero – he saved a family from a flaming vehicle. (September 9, 2002)

Bosses at General Motors' Pontiac division are so impressed by his new action movie XXX, they're designing a souped-up supercar for the sequel.

In Pitch Black he actually performed the shoulder-dislocation stunt (when Riddick breaks free for the second time) for the crew, holding a chain between his hands, although he couldn't do it with the cuffs on. The version we see is mostly him with some special effects thrown in.

One day Edward Burns popped in at his appartment and found Diesel scribbling on pads of paper. Diesel was compiling lists of all the young actors who were doing better than he was and jotting notes on precisely when he planned on surpassing each of them.

By stripping away all identifying marks, presenting himself as a blank slate -- particularly when it comes to his racial background -- he's found a way to market himself to the broadest possible audience.

He's selling himself as a multiethnic Everyman, a movie star virtually every demographic can claim as its own.

In BOILER ROOM (2000), Greg tells Chris to get his One Race hands off his money. Chris is played by Vin Diesel, who's production company is called One Race Productions.

His hobbies/interests are Yoga, Snow boarding, Playstation, Dungeons and Dragons, Comic books/Heavy Metal Magazine, Classic Movies, Italian cooking

His previous jobs: telemarketer and bouncer (9 years)

Vin Diesel was raised by his astrologer/psychiatrist mother and adoptive father in an artist's housing project in New York's Greenwich Village, never knowing his biological father.

He could actually see in the dark with the experimental contact lenses he wore as Riddick in Pitch Black.

The contact lenses he wore in the movie, while a prototype during production, were briefly available to the public from Lens Quest following the release of the film. They were called Shine Job, like in the movie.