John Leguizamo

His paternal grandfather was a wealthy Colombian landowner, and his great-great-grandfather, Higinio Cualla, was Mayor of Bogotá for sixteen years in the late 1800s, and was considered an important modernizer of the city.

John Alberto Leguizamo Peláez (, ; Colombian Spanish: ; born July 22, 1960 13:00) 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.

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 some African roots.

Leguizamo started out as a stand-up comic doing the New York nightclub circuit in 1984, and in 1988, he performed at The Public Theater in two shows, including as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream in which he appeared with Fisher Stevens.

His other early roles include: a friend of Madonna's boyfriend in her "Borderline" video (1984); Mixed Blood (1985), Casualties of War (1989).

He made his television debut in 1986 with a small part in Miami Vice.

In the 1990s he played a terrorist in Die Hard 2 (1990), Hangin' with the Homeboys (1991), the robber in Regarding Henry (1991), Super Mario Bros. (1993), and Night Owl (1993).

In 1991, Leguizamo also wrote and performed in the Off-Broadway production Mambo Mouth, where he played seven different characters.

Mambo Mouth won an Obie Award and an Outer Critics Award.

He was listed as one of 12 "Promising New Actors of 1991" in "John Willis' Screen Worlds Vol. 43".

In 1992, he starred in Whispers in the Dark as John Castillo.

After several years of doing supporting roles in film and television, he rose to fame with major roles in the fantasy adventure Super Mario Bros. portraying Luigi and the crime drama Carlito's Way portraying Benny Blanco (both 1993), followed by a role as drag queen Chi-Chi Rodriguez in the road comedy To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), for which he received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination.

In 1993 Leguizamo portrayed Luigi in the film Super Mario Bros., based on the Mario video game franchise.

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), The Counselor (2013), John Wick (2014), John Wick 2 (2017), and The Menu (2022).

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.

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.

As a voice actor, he narrated the sitcom The Brothers García (2000–2004) and played Sid the Sloth in the Ice Age franchise and Bruno Madrigal in Encanto (2021).

Before this discovery, Leguizamo had claimed that he was Puerto Rican on his father's side, which was one of the reasons he was selected as the Puerto Rican Day Parade Global Ambassador of the Arts, and marched in the parade on June 12, 2011.

It was determined that Leguizamo's maternal lineage includes the 16th-century Spanish conquistador Sebastián de Belalcázar, as well as Jerónimo Betuma, a 17th-century indigenous Colombian of noble birth.

When Leguizamo was 3 years old, his family immigrated to New York City, where they lived in various neighborhoods in Queens, including Jackson Heights.

He later credited growing up as one of the first Latino children in the neighborhood as formative in his acting ability: "It was tough. There were lots of fights. I would walk through a park and be attacked, and I had to defend myself all the time. But this helped me to become funny so that I wouldn't get hit."

His parents divorced when he was 13 and lived with his mother growing up.

Leguizamo and his family constantly moved apartments in Queens, attending multiple elementary schools.

Leguizamo was arrested twice as a teenager, once for jumping a turnstile at a New York City Subway station and another time for truancy.

His family later sent him to Colombia for a year where he stayed with his relatives.

Leguizamo attended Joseph Pulitzer Middle School (I.S.145) and later Murry Bergtraum High School.

As a student at Murry Bergtraum, he wrote comedy material and tested it on his classmates.

He was voted "Most Talkative" by his classmates.

After graduating from high school, he began his theater career as an undergraduate at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, from which he eventually dropped out in favor of a career in stand-up comedy.

Post-NYU, Leguizamo enrolled at LIU Post and at HB Studio, where he took theater classes.

He received a Special Tony Award in 2018.

Leguizamo began his career as a stand-up comedian in New York City.

He received further Primetime Emmy Award nominations for the Paramount miniseries Waco (2018) and the Netflix limited series When They See Us (2019).

He has also appeared on ER, The Kill Point, Bloodline, and The Mandalorian.

In 2023, he hosted the MSNBC series Leguizamo Does America.