John Leguizamo

John Alberto Leguizamo Peláez (, ; ; born July 22, 196013:00) is an American actor, comedian, and film producer. He has appeared in over 100 films, produced over 20 films and documentaries, made over 30 television appearances, and has produced various television projects. He has also written and performed for the Broadway stage receiving four Tony Award nominations for Freak in 1998, Sexaholix in 2002, and Latin History for Morons in 2018. He received a Special Tony Award in 2018. Leguizamo rose to fame with a co-starring role in Super Mario Bros. (1993) as Luigi, Benny Blanco in the crime drama Carlito's Way (1993), and later To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), for which he received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination. Other films include Romeo + Juliet (1996), The Pest (1997), Summer of Sam (1999), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Empire (2002), Love in the Time of Cholera (2007), Righteous Kill (2008), The Lincoln Lawyer (2011), Chef (2014), John Wick (2014), John Wick 2 (2017), and The Menu (2022). He narrated the sitcom The Brothers García (2000–2004) and voiced Sid the Sloth in the Ice Age franchise (2002–2016), and Bruno in Encanto (2021). Leguizamo is also known for his television roles including Freak (1998) for which he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program. He received further Primetime Emmy Award nominations for the Paramount miniseries Waco (2018) and the Netflix limited series When They See Us (2019). He's also appeared on ER, The Kill Point, Bloodline, and The Mandalorian. In 2023, it was announced he would host the MSNBC series Leguizamo Does America, premiering on Sunday, April 16. Early life and education Leguizamo was born in Bogotá, Colombia, on July 22, 1960, the son of Luz Marina Peláez and Alberto Rudolfo Leguizamo. His father was once an aspiring film director and studied at Cinecittà in Rome, Italy, but eventually dropped out due to lack of finances. According to Leguizamo, his surname is of Basque origin and he has distant Basque roots. Research by the genealogy show Finding Your Roots indicated that Leguizamo does not have Puerto Rican, Italian, and Lebanese ancestry, as he has sometimes stated (the latter of which he claimed through his maternal grandfather. His family is Colombian, and a DNA test found that his genetic ancestry has Indigenous, European (especially Iberian) and a bit of African roots.