Actor, writer and director Vin Diesel was born on July 18, 1967 in New York City. Of what he describes as “ambiguous ethnicity,” he was inspired to act by his stepfather, who worked as an acting instructor and theater manager. At age seven, he made his stage debut, appearing in a production of the children’s play Dinosaur Door, a role he got after actually intending the vandalize New York’s Theater for the New City. He eventually went on to study creative writing at Hunter College, and after graduation, he first earned notice as a filmmaker. He wrote, directed and appeared in the short film Multi-Facial, which earned a slot at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995.
Born Mark Sinclair Vincent, he took his screen name after his work as a bouncer in a New York nightclub. His distinct name—the “Diesel” bit came when his friends described his non-stop energy—would later grace the screens in numerous film, mostly in the action genre. Although his first film role was in the 1990 release Awakenings, it was only eight years later when he took his first major Hollywood role. He was hand-picked by Steven Spielberg to appear in his war film Saving Private Ryan on the strength of his performance on Multi-Racial. This led to numerous other roles in Hollywood films, initially in Boiler Room and Pitch Black, and later earning action hero stardom with his roles in the box office hits The Fast and the Furious and xXx.
Diesel, however, was not limited to action roles. His performance in the comedy film The Pacifier, where he played a Navy SEAL lieutenant assigned to deal with a subject’s (Faith Ford) many children, was met with surprise, but nevertheless was a hit in the box office. He attempted a dramatic role in 2006, when he played a real-life mobster in Find Me Guilty; his role was applauded by critics, but the film failed commercially. His other projects, The Chronicles of Riddick and Babylon A.D., also met mixed results upon release. His latest project is Fast and Furious, the fourth film in The Fast and the Furious series, where he finally reprises his role as Dominic Toretto after not playing it in the second and third films.
Diesel has played Dungeons & Dragons for over twenty years and wrote the foreword for the commemorative book 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons. In the 30th Anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons issue of Dragon Magazine, they examine the fact that Diesel played Dungeons & Dragons, and reveal that he had a fake tattoo of his character's name, "Melkor" on his stomach while filming xXx.
Vin Diesel has a daughter, Hania Riley, born April 2, 2008, with his girlfriend, model Paloma Jimenez.
1990 - Awakenings - Orderly
1994 - Multi-Facial - Mike
1997 - Strays - Rick
1998 - Saving Private Ryan - Private Caparzo
1999 - The Iron Giant - The Iron Giant (voice)
2000 - Boiler Room - Chris Varick
2000 - Pitch Black - Richard B. Riddick
2001 - The Fast and the Furious - Dominic Toretto
2001 - Knockaround Guys - Taylor Reese
2002 - xXx - Xander Cage
2003 - A Man Apart - Sean Vetter
2004 - The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury - Richard B. Riddick (voice)
2004 - The Chronicles of Riddick - Richard B. Riddick
2005 - The Pacifier - Lieutenant Shane Wolfe
2006 - Find Me Guilty - Jack DiNorscio
2006 - The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift - Dominic Toretto
2008 - Babylon A.D. - Hugo Cornelius Toorop
2009 - Fast and Furious - Dominic Toretto - post-production
2009 - Rockfish - voiceover - pre-production; animated
2009 - The Wheelman - The Wheelman - announced
2009 - Hannibal the Conqueror - Hannibal Barca - announced
He changed his name to "Vin Diesel" while working as a bouncer at New York City nightclub the Tunnel, because in that business one's real name is not usually given out. The name "Vin" is simply a shortened version of "Vincent". He received the nickname "Diesel" from his friends who said he ran off diesel, referring to his non-stop energy.
He prefers to maintain his privacy regarding his personal life.
“ I'm not gonna put it out there on a magazine cover like some other actors. I come from the Harrison Ford, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino code of silence. ”
"I was a bouncer for nine years - it was all I knew how to do - and my training was not to talk loosely...That's still my thought process: Shut your mouth, watch your back and keep working till your ass falls off."
"I would get into fights with other bouncers when a guy was already on the floor and the other guys thought it was alright to jump up in the air and land on the guy's head."
"I am definitely a person of color." - regarding his mysterious ethnicity
On the planned Chronicles of Riddick trilogy: "We gave the script to the studio, I bought three leather binders. One said C1, one said C2 and one said C3. They all had locks on them and we only gave the key to C1 to the studio".
"In the next film, Riddick is going to go to the underverse. Riddick will act with new elementals. Not air elementals [as Judi Dench's character is] but fire and water. It'll come full circle in C3 when he must return to Furia".
Multi-Facial - 1994 - Producer
Strays - 1997 - Executive Producer, Producer
xXx - 2002 - Executive Producer
A Man Apart - 2003 - Producer
Chronicles of Riddick - 2004 - Executive Producer
Life is a Dream - 2004 - Do!$#!#entary, Executive Producer
Find Me Guilty - 2006 - Producer
Hitman - 2007 - Executive Producer
Hannibal the Conqueror - 2008 - Producer
Fast and Furious - 2009 - Producer
Multi-Facial - 1994
Strays - 1997
Hannibal the Conqueror - 2009
Multi-Facial - 1994
Strays - 1997
Main article: Tigon Studios
1. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (2004)
2. The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (2009)
3. The Wheelman (2009)