John Leguizamo

John Leguizamo was born in Bogotá, Colombia on July 22, 1964, and emigrated to the United States with his family at age three, settling in Queens, NY. Hints of a future career in show business became evident in high school when he began writing comedy material and unleashing it on unsuspecting classmates, who voted him "Most Talkative." He went on to take theater classes at New York University, and began doing stand-up routines in the New York comedy clubs.

He made his television debut on Miami Vice in 1984, and followed up with several more TV, film, and music video roles. His talents for creating and portraying several different characters in the same production surfaced in 1991 in the award-winning off-Broadway production Mambo Mouth. That talent was later developed further in the short-lived Fox show House Of Buggin, which lasted less than a year. Other subsequent film roles included Carlito's Way, To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, Romeo and Juliet, The Fan, Executive Decision, The Pest, Doctor Dolittle, Summer of Sam, The Alibi, and Moulin Rouge.

He made his Broadway debut in a production of Freak in 1998, later turned into a film by Spike Lee for HBO. He briefly joined the cast of ER for the 2005-2006 season as Dr. Victor Clemente, and also released his very frank and eye-opening memoir Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas and All the Rest of My Hollywood Friends: My Life in 2006. He currently resides in Venice, CA, with his wife Justine and their two children.