Vin Diesel
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Vin Diesel was born on July 18, 1967. He is an American actor, writer, director, and producer. While he prefers to identify himself as a "multi-faceted" actor he has played a number of similar roles, as a result of early difficulties finding roles due to his very mixed heritage. He founded the production companies One Race Films, Tigon Studios, and Racetrack Records.
Diesel’s first film role was an uncredited appearance in the 1990 film Awakenings. He then produced, directed and starred in the 1994 short film Multi-Facial, a short semi-autobiographical film which follows a struggling actor stuck in the audition process, because he is regarded as either "too black" or "too white", or not black or white enough. He made his first feature-length film, 1997’s Strays, an urban drama in which he was self-cast 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, leading to an MTV deal to turn it into a series.
He was then cast in Steven Spielberg’s 1998 Oscar-winning film Saving Private Ryan on the poignancy of his performance in Multi-Facial. He then earned critical acclaim for voice work as the title character in the animation film The Iron Giant (1999). He followed it up with a major role in Boiler Room (2000) and then got his breakthrough role as the anti-hero Riddick in Pitch Black (2000). He then attained action hero super stardom with the box office hits The Fast and the Furious (2001) and xXx (2002).
In 2004, he reprised his role as Pitch Black’s Riddick in The Chronicles of Riddick which did only moderately well at the box office. In 2005 he played a lighthearted role in the comedy film The Pacifier which was a surprise box office success. In 2006 he attempted a dramatic role when he played real-life mobster Jack DiNorscio in Find Me Guilty. Although he was critically acclaimed for his performance, the film bombed at the box office. Later that year he made a cameo appearance in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, reprising his role from The Fast and The Furious. Diesel was originally offered the lead in 2 Fast 2 Furious but turned it down. He was also offered the chance to reprise his role from xXx in xXx: State of the Union but also turned it down. In March 2006, Diesel stated that he was working on a sequel to The Chronicles of Riddick which as of 2008 is still in pre-production stages.
In 2007, he was set to produce and star as Agent 47 in the film adaptation of the video game Hitman, but eventually pulled out from the role and served as executive producer on the film instead. In 2008 he stars in the science-fiction action thriller Babylon A.D..
After seven years, he is reprising his role as Dominic Toretto in the fourth film of The Fast and The Furious series, titled Fast and Furious which will be released in June 2009.
Vin Diesel has a daughter, Hania Riley, born April 2, 2008, with his girlfriend, model Paloma Jimenez. Speaking to An tEolas, an Irish newspaper, Diesel spoke of how he has been seen as a hard man, but is in touch with his soft side as a proud father.
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