Vin Diesel (born Mark Sinclair or Mark Sinclair Vincent; July 18, 1967) is an American actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. He came to prominence in the late 1990s, and first became known for appearing in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan in 1998. He is most known for his portrayals of Riddick in The Chronicles of Riddick trilogy (2001–2013), and of Dominic Toretto in The Fast and the Furious film series (2001–present), two franchises in which he also acted as producer.
He also starred in xXx (2002) and Sidney Lumet's Find Me Guilty (2006). His voice acting work includes Brad Bird's The Iron Giant (1999), the video games of The Chronicles of Riddick franchise, and the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxyadaptation of the Marvel comics of the same name.
As a filmmaker, Diesel directed, wrote, produced and starred in the drama film Strays, as well as in two short films. He is also the founder of the production companies One Race Films, Racetrack Records, and Tigon Studios.
Diesel was born in New York City. His mother, Delora Sherleen (Sinclair) Vincent, is an astrologer.[2][3] Diesel has stated that he is "of ambiguous ethnicity".[4] His mother's background includes Scottish, English, and German.[5] He has never met his biological father, and has stated that "all I know from my mother is that I have connections to many different cultures".[6] Diesel has self-identified as "definitely a person of colour".[7] He was raised by his Caucasian mother and African-American stepfather, Irving H. Vincent, an acting instructor and theater manager.[7][8][9] He made his stage debut at age seven when he appeared in the children's play Dinosaur Door, written by Barbara Garson. The play was produced at Theater for the New City in New York's Greenwich Village. His involvement in the play came about when he, his brother, and some friends had broken into Theater for the New City's space on Jane Street with the intent to vandalize it. They were confronted by the theater's artistic director, Crystal Field, who, instead of calling the police, handed them scripts and offered them parts in the upcoming show.[10][11][12]
Diesel remained involved with the theater throughout adolescence, going on to attend the city's Hunter College, where his creative writing studies led him to begin screenwriting. He has identified himself as a "multi-faceted" actor[13] as a result of early difficulties finding roles due to his mixed heritage.[13][14] He changed his name to Vin Diesel while working as a bouncer at the New York nightclub Tunnel, because one's real name is not usually given out in that business. The name "Vin" is simply a shortened version of "Vincent". He received the nickname "Diesel" from his friends, who said he ran off diesel fuel, referring to his non-stop energy.