Mark Sinclair (born July 18, 1967), better known by his stage name Vin Diesel, is an American actor, producer, director and screenwriter. He is well known for his portrayals of Dominic Toretto in The Fast and the Furious franchise series, Richard B. Riddick in The Chronicles of Riddick series and Xander Cage in the xXx series. He is also a producer on sequels in these franchises, with his company One Race Films.

Vin Diesel 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 the Theater for the New City space on Jane Street with the intent to vandalize it.

They were confronted by the theater’s artistic director, Crystal Field, who offered them roles in the upcoming show instead of calling the police. Diesel remained involved with the theater throughout adolescence, going on to attend NYC’s Hunter College, where studies in creative writing led him to begin screenwriting. He has identified himself as a “multi-faceted” actor as a result of early difficulties finding roles due to his mixed heritage

Diesel has also starred in The Pacifier (2005) and Find Me Guilty (2006). His voice-acting work includes The Iron Giant (1999) and the video game spin-offs from the Chronicles of Riddick franchise, as well as the Marvel Studios films Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018) as the role of Groot.

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He wrote, directed, produced and starred in a short film titled Multi-Facial and the feature-length drama film Strays. He is the founder of the production companies One Race Films, Racetrack Records and Tigon Studios.

Education

After high school was completed, Vin enrolled as an English major at Hunter College, but dropped out after three years to go to Hollywood to further his acting career. Being an experienced theatre actor did not make any impression in Hollywood and after a year of struggling to make his mark, he returned to New York.

His mother then gave him a book called “Feature Films at used Car Prices” by Rick Schmidt. The book showed him that he could take control of his career and make his own movies. He wrote a short film based on his own experiences as an actor, called Multi-Facial (1995), which was shot in less than three days at a cost of $3,000. Multi-Facial (1995) was eventually accepted for the 1995 Cannes Film Festival where it got a tumultuous reception.

Afterwards, Vin returned to Los Angeles and raised almost $50,000 through telemarketing to fund the making of his first feature, Strays (1997). Six months after shooting, the film was accepted for the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, and although it received a good reception, it did not sell as well as hoped. Yet again Vin returned disappointed to New York only to receive a dream phone call.

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Steven Spielberg was impressed by Multi-Facial(1995) and wanted to meet Vin, leading him to be cast in Saving Private Ryan (1998). Multi-Facial (1995) earned Vin more work, when the director of The Iron Giant (1999) saw it and decided to cast Vin in the title role. From there, Vin’s career steadily grew, with him securing his first lead role, as Richard B. Riddick in the sci-fi film Pitch Black (2000). The role has earned him a legion of devoted fans and the public recognition he deserves.

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• Diesel’s first appearance on the big screen came with a brief role in ‘Awakenings’ in 1990. His appearance was uncredited in the movie. But that did not deter him from his conviction to act.

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• In 1994, he directed, produced, acted and wrote the script for a short semi-autobiographical film titled ‘Multi-Facial’. The movie was selected for screening at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.

• He made his first feature-length film ‘Strays’ in 1997. It was an urban drama, which he directed, produced, wrote and acted in. It was selected for competition at the Sundance Festival, leading to an MTV deal to turn it into a series.

• During the late 1990s, Diesel got the opportunity to work in Spielberg’s ‘Saving Private Ryan (1998)’ as Spielberg was impressed with his work in ‘Multi-Facial’. He also gave voice over for the animation film, ‘The Iron Giant (1999)’.

• The beginning of the year 2000 proved to be quiet fruitful for Diesel as his movies ‘Boiler Room’, a crime drama film and ‘Pitch Black’, science fiction thriller in which he played the anti-hero, were released.

• Now came the movies that established Diesel’s image as an action hero—‘The Fast and the Furious (2001)’ and ‘xXx (2002)’. These movies gained considerable success at the box office and made Diesel an action idol.

• During the mid-2000s, Diesel continued to gain popularity and box office success with movies such as ‘The Pacifier (2005)’—a light hearted comedy and ‘Find Me Guilty (2006)’, in which he played the role of ‘Jack DiNorscio’

• In 2006, he reprised his role of ‘Dominic Toretto’ for a cameo in ‘The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift’. He was offered roles in ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’ and ‘xXx: State of the Union’, which he turned down.

• He intended to produce and star as ‘Agent 47’ in the film adaptation of the famous video game ‘Hitman’ in 2007 but ended up only as an executive producer on the film.

  Towards the end of ‘2000s, Diesel starred in the science fiction action thriller, ‘Babylon A.D. (2008)’ and returned back to ‘The Fast and the Furious’ series ‘Fast & Furious (2009)’.