John Leguizamo

John Leguizamo in ER

John Leguizamo in “ER”

Born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1964, John spent his youth in New York City when his family immigrated to the United States. He would go on to attend New York University and, by 20, was polishing up his standup routine around the city. Though getting steady work on TV and in film, particularly for Brian De Palma in “Casualties of War” in 1989, John came into his own with the off-Broadway production “Mambo Mouth” in which John donned a multitude of Latino characters. He would return for a follow-up in 1993, the same year he inherited the coveted role of video game hero Luigi in “Super Mario Brothers.”

A host of opportunities opened for John in the mid-1990s and he snatched up anything he could get his hands on, most notably “Carlito’s Way” for De Palma in 1993, the Kurt Russell actioneer “Executive Decision,” and “Summer of Sam” for Spike Lee in 1999. He began work as a producer during this time as well, helming such productions as “Freak,” “Empire,” and “The Babysitters.” By the end of the 2000s, John had his hand in some 80 projects for TV, movies, and video games – not including his theatre work. Lately, John’s been dabbling in animated features such as the “Ice Age” pictures and concentrating on television work such as the Spike mini-series “The Kill Point” in 2007. As the decade closes, he appears in some high profile projects such as M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Happening” and the Robert De NiroAl Pacino team-up, “Righteous Kill.”

John on the Screen

John Leguizamo is incredibly prolific. Consider: three episodes of “Miami Vice” in the 80s, “Casualties of War” and “Carlito’s Way” for Brian De Palma, “Die Hard 2,” the Harrison Ford weeper “Regarding Henry,” “Too Wong Foo Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar,” “Romeo + Juliet,” “Spawn,” “King of the Jungle,” the Martin Lawrence comedy “What’s the Worst That Can Happen?,” the Arnold Schwarzenegger adventure “Collateral Damage,” “Assault on Precinct 13,” “The Honeymooners,” George A. Romero’s “Land of the Dead,” and more recently as Mr. Wolf on “The Kill Point” and Lorenzo Danza in “Love in the Time of Cholera.”

John Says

On married life:
“Marriage is wild. I thought it was this perfect land of happiness and joy. Wrong! After you say you do, you don’t for a long time.”