John Leguizamo

2 titles

Date of Birth: 1960-07-22 (age 66)
Nationality: Colombia
Place of birth: Bogotá, Colombia

Mini Bio

John Alberto Leguizamo Peláez (born July 22, 1960) is a Colombian-American stand-up comedian, actor, and film producer. He has appeared in over 100 films, produced over 20 films and documentaries, made over 30 television appearances, and has produced various television projects. Leguizamo began his career as a stand-up comedian in New York City. After several years of doing supporting roles in film and television, he rose to fame with significant roles in the fantasy adventure Super Mario Bros. portraying Luigi Mario and the crime drama Carlito's Way portraying Benny Blanco (both from 1993), followed by a role as drag queen Chi-Chi Rodriguez in the road comedy To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Other films Leguizamo has since appeared in include Romeo + Juliet (1996), The Pest (1997), Summer of Sam (1999), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Empire (2002), Love in the Time of Cholera (2007), Righteous Kill (2008), The Lincoln Lawyer (2011), The Counselor (2013), John Wick (2014), John Wick 2 (2017), and The Menu (2022). As a voice actor, he narrated the sitcom The Brothers García (2000–2004). He played Sid the Sloth in the Ice Age franchise and Bruno Madrigal in Encanto (2021). He has also appeared on ER, The Kill Point, Bloodline, and The Mandalorian. In 2023, he hosted the MSNBC series Leguizamo Does America.

Backstage

For his role in Ice Age (2002), he tried a variety of different speaking voices for his character, Sid. After watching several hours of Discovery Channel footage of sloths, he developed the lisp, because sloths store food in their cheeks.
Was accepted into Lee Strasberg's actors' studio and studied with the master for one day before Strasberg died. "I have that affect on people," Leguizamo quipped.
His parents encouraged him to maintain his Spanish, sometimes with bribes. They spoke to him in Spanish, but he usually replied in English.
Was voted "Most Talkative" in high school.
Mentioned on The Bob and Tom Show that he turned down the role of Tom Hanks' boyfriend in Philadelphia (1993) to do Super Mario Bros. (1993).
Moved from Colombia to the United States with his family when he was three years old.
Last name is actually pronounced: leh-gee-ZA-mo.
Although he is about 5' 8" in reality, he has played two characters who are technically little people (under 4' 11"): the Clown in Spawn (1997) and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge! (2001).
Majored in theater at New York University and was the only Latino in drama class.
He is the son of Luz Marina Peláez and Alberto Rudolfo Leguizamo. His family is Colombian. His paternal grandfather, Martín Vargas Cualla, was a wealthy landowner, and his great-great-grandfather, Higinio Cualla, was Mayor of John's birth city of Bogotá, the country's capital, for sixteen years between 1884-1900, significantly modernizing it. (His surname comes from his paternal grandmother, María Emilia Leguizamo).

Awards

He has also written and performed for the Broadway stage receiving four Tony Award nominations for Freak in 1998, Sexaholix in 2002, and Latin History for Moronsin in 2018. He received a Special Tony Award in 2018. Julie Newmar (1995), for which he received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination. Leguizamo is also known for his television roles including Freak (1998) for which he received the 1999 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program. This historic win made Leguizamo the first Latino to win this award in Emmy history. He received further Primetime Emmy Award nominations for the miniseries Waco (2018) and the Netflix limited series When They See Us (2019).

Movies

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