Michael Peña
Born	Michael Anthony Peña January 13, 1976 (1976-01-13) (age 33) Chicago, Illinois, United States

Michael Anthony Peña (born January 13, 1976) is an American actor.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Personal life 1.2 Career 2 Filmography 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Personal life

Peña, a Mexican American,^[1] was born in Chicago, Illinois, where his father worked at a button factory and his mother was an assistant to a social worker.^[2] Both of Peña's parents were originally farmers.^[1] Peña attended Hubbard High School in Chicago. He has been associated with Scientology.^[3] Peña and his wife Brie Shaffer welcomed their first child in September 2008, a boy named Roman.^[4]

[edit] Career

Though Peña has been a regular in independent productions since 1994, his breakthrough performances came in 2004 in two Best Picture Oscar-winning Paul Haggis penned films, Million Dollar Baby and Crash. The latter was also directed by Haggis, while the former was helmed by Clint Eastwood. Though both films are critically acclaimed, Peña received attention for his particularly emotional performance in Crash. The following year, he appeared on the Golden Globe winning series, The Shield. In 2006, he starred in Oliver Stone's film based on the September 11, 2001 attacks, World Trade Center. He also had a small role in Alejandro González Iñárritu's Academy Award nominated and Golden Globe-winning film Babel. This gives him the rare distinction of having appeared in three consecutive Oscar nominated films. He recently starred alongside Mark Wahlberg in Shooter as novice FBI agent Nick Memphis.

In 2006, Peña performed in the HBO film Walkout playing the part of Sal Castro, a Mexican-American high school teacher who inspires a group of East L.A. high school students to fight for Chicano rights.

In 2009, Peña played a mall security guard alongside Seth Rogen's character in Jody Hill's Observe and Report.^[5]

[edit] Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	My Fellow Americans	Ernesto
1999	Bellyfruit	Oscar
	Paradise Cove	Dan Running Horse
2000	Gone in Sixty Seconds	Ignacio
2001	Buffalo Soldiers	Garcia
2002	Andy Richter Controls the Universe	Patrick
2003	The United States of Leland	Guillermo
	Love Object	Ramirez
2004	Crash	Daniel
	Million Dollar Baby	Omar
	The Calcium Kid	Jose Mendez
2005	Little Athens	Carlos
	Sueno	Jimmy
2006	Walkout	Sal Castro	TV
	Fifty Pills	Eduardo
	Babel	John
	World Trade Center	Will Jimeno
2007	Shooter	Nick Memphis
	Lions for Lambs	Ernest
2008	The Lucky Ones	T.K. Poole
2009	Observe and Report	Dennis
2010	My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done	TBA	forthcoming film

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Michael Peña at the Internet Movie Database
• Q&A Sessions: Michael Peña