JANUARY 13
Michael Pena was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 13,1976 to parents who are originally from Mexico. Pena’s breakout film role was Daniel in the film Crash directed by Paul Haggis. Other notable performances include End of Watch, directed by David Ayer and worked alongside Jake Gyllenhaal.
Michael Pena, Jake Gyllenhal (Photo: Open Road Films)
After high school Pena went to an open casting call for Peter Bogdanovich feature To Sir, with Love II (1996), and beat out hundreds of other young men for a role. He then moved to Los Angeles and booked several small roles in films like Star Maps, My Fellow Americans working along Jack Lemmon and James Garner), and the Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer feature Gone in 60 Seconds (2000).
He appeared in 5 movies nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award – Million Dollar Baby, Crash, Babel, American Hustle, and The Martian – with the first two movies winning.
Peña has said in interviews that in every film he’s cast in, he asks the writers to include a reference to his character being Mexican-American because, he says, he gets to mainly play characters who are not stereotypes & clichés, and that it is a source of pride to Mexican-American fans who go to his films to see him playing non-stereotypical roles
He recently played DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in Netflix TV series Narcos: Mexico; and Dr. Roarke in Columbia Pictures Fantasy Island.
Pena will next star in the sci-fi epic film Moonfall where he plays Tom Lopez, a wealthy car dealer. The film is to be directed by Roland Emmerich.
Featured Photo: Wiki Commons
— Latin Heat News Service
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