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Name: Michael Peņa
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Date of Birth:
January 13, 1976
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Place of Birth:
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Mini-bio:
Adept at essaying a broad array of roles, Michael Peņa launched his career with guest appearances on such series as NYPD Blue, Homicide: Life on the Street, and ER, as well as longer stints on Felicit... read morey and The Shield. Though his big-screen work officially stretches back several years prior to Million Dollar Baby (2004), that Clint Eastwood-directed Best Picture winner represented Peņa's first major Hollywood credit. His involvement only amounted to a small part, but he re-teamed with Baby scripter Paul Haggis for higher (supporting) billing in the latter's Crash (2005) -- also a Best Picture Winner, and this one a searing, acerbic indictment of inner-city racism. Peņa scored one of his first leads under the aegis of director Oliver Stone, co-starring opposite Nicolas Cage in the taut, suspenseful thriller World Trade Center (2006) -- a docudrama about the two New York City Port Authority rescue workers trapped beneath the rubble of the fifth building when the towers fell. Peņa followed it up with a turn as a genial, resourceful FBI agent who assists a government-conned scapegoat (Mark Wahlberg) in Antoine Fuqua's conspiracy thriller Shooter (2007), and essayed a key supporting role in director Robert Redford's ensemble drama Lions for Lambs, opposite Redford, Meryl Streep, and Tom Cruise. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
Michael Pena mini-bio: Peña was raised in Chicago. After graduating from high school, he went to an open casting call for the Peter Bogdonovich feature To Sir With Love 2, and to his surprise, beat out hundreds of other young men for a role. After relocating to Los Angeles Peña quickly booked a succession of roles in features including Star Maps, My Fellow Americans (opposite Jack Lemmon and James Garner), La Cucaracha (winner of the Best Picture in the Austin Film Festival), Bellyfruit, and the Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer feature Gone in Sixty Seconds.
