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Michael Peña – Lucca Comics & Games 2018 02.jpg Photo by Niccolò Caranti –

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Michael Peña

Michael Anthony Pena was born on January 13, 1976. He is an American actor who has starred in many films including Crash 2004, World Trade Center 2006, Shooter 2007, Observe and Report 2009, Tower Heist 2011, End of Watch 2012, and Gangster Squad 2013. Michael has also acted in films such as American Hustle 2013, The Martian 2015, Ant-Man 2015, and its sequel-Man and the Wasp 2018. 

In 2014, he had the title role in Cesar Chavez and played DEA agent Kiki Camarena in season one of the Netflix series Narcos: Mexico.

1. His Early Life

Michael was born in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were originally farmers and emigrated from Mexico. In the U.S. his mother was a social worker and his father was a factory worker. His father was from Villa Purificacion, Jalisco and his mother was from Charcas, San Luis Potosi. He grew up in the North Lawndale area and attended St. Nicholas of Tolentine Elementary. When he was in his teens, he attended Marist High School and graduated from Hubbard Hugh School where he participated and was a state qualifier in wrestling and track.

He had two major breakthroughs in his performance in Million Dollar Baby 2004, and Crash from the same year. The two films came from Best Picture Oscar-winning Paul Haggis. The director of Million Dollar Baby was directed was Clint Eastwood while Crash was directed by Paul. The two gave him international viewership increasing his fame and extension of his global audience.

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2. The Beginning of His Acting Career 

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Even though Michael has been a regular in independent productions since 1994, his two breakthrough performances were Million Dollar Baby 2004, and Crash from the same year. Both films came from Best Picture Oscar-winning Paul Haggis. Million Dollar Baby was directed by Clint Eastwood and Crash was directed by Paul. 

Both Films are critically acclaimed and gained Michael’s attention, from the viewers, for his particularly emotional performance in Crash. In 2005, Michael appeared in the Golden Globe-winning series The Shield.

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3. His Growth In Film

Michael later starred in Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center which is based on the September 11, 2001, attacks. He also had a small role in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s film Babel, this gave him the rare distinction of having appeared in three consecutive Oscar-nominated films.

Michael starred in the HBO film Walkout as Sal Castro in 2006. The film was based on a Mexican-American high school teacher who inspires a group of East L.A. high school students to fight for Chicano rights. In 2007, Micahel starred alongside Mark Wahlberg in Shooter, his role was a novice FBI agent Nick Memphis. Later in 2009, Michael played a mall security guard alongside Seth Rogen in Jody Hill’s Observe and Report.

4. His Major Roles 

Michael Peña and Eva Longoria in 2019 2.jpg Photo by QUE TAL UM CINEMINHA? –

In 2012, Michael co-starred with Jake Gyllenhaal as a Los Angeles police officer, in End of Watch. In the same year, he began filming Cesar Chavez which is a biopic about the life of American labor leader Cesar Chavez, who founded the United Farm Workers. Micahel was given the honor to star as Cesar. He later shared the screen with Brad Pitt, Shia Labeouf, Logan Lerman, and Jon Bernthal in the film Fury which is a World War II-set action film. 

In 2015, Michael got an opportunity to play Luis in the film Ant-Man. His character was Scott Lang’s former cellmate and member of his crew. Michael noted that his character was friendly and very down to earth, the type of person to joke about being in jail. The role was a big step up for Michael. He shared the screen with major actors like Paul Rudd and Anthony Mackie, not only that, but he also got a chance to showcase his talent in a Marvel film.

In 2018, Michael starred in the remake of A Wrinkle in Time where he played the main antagonist. In this Walt Disney Pictures-produced film, he starred alongside Oprah Winfrey, Resse Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Levi Miller, Storm Reid, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Zach Galifianakis, and Chris Pine.

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5. Michael’s Role in The Martian

In 2015, Michael was a principal player of the ensemble cast for his role on board the Ares-III. His character was Major Rick Martinez, USAF officer, engineer, and pilot of the Ares III for MAV. This was in the award-winning Ridley Scott sci-film The Martian. Michael was able to star alongside  Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Chiwetel Ejiofor Sebastian Stan, and Benedict Wong. 

The film is based on an astronaut’s lone struggle to survive on Mars after he is left behind and the efforts of NASA to rescue him and bring him home to Earth.

6. His First Main Character Gig

In 2017, there was news that Michael had joined the cast of Narcos for its upcoming fourth season. It was later revealed that the fourth season would be a new season called Narcos: Mexico with Michael as DEA agent Kiki Camarena. His character was a very set agent whose main goal was to garner valuable intel about Felix’s organization.

This role was a big setup for Michael because it was his first series as the main character. His character’s plot was a DEA agent who moves his wife and young son from California to Guadalajara to take on a new post. He quickly learns that his assignment will be more challenging than he imagined.

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7. Michael’s Work Outside Major Picture Film

Actors Michael Pena and John Travolta enjoys Game 5 of the 2016 World Series. (30565637262).jpg Photo by Arturo Pardavila III from Hoboken, NJ, USA –

Michael has also voiced the character Ricky in the FX animated comedy Chozen. But that wasn’t his only voice-acting gig, he also voiced Tito in the film Turbo. He also provided his vocals for the character Marguerite for the popular animated series American Dad.

In 2016, Michael was featured in the Lego Marvel’s Avengers video game where he starred as Luis.

8. Michael’s Music Career

In 2005, Michael formed the Los Angeles rock band, Nico Vega which was named after his mother, Nicolasa. In 2007, Michael left the band to concentrate on his acting career but he help write the track Beast which reached No.26 on the Billboard Hit Rock Songs Chart. On January 12, 2022, his performance in Midlake’s Bethel Woods music video was showcased.

9. His Personal Life

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In 2006, Michael married Brie Shaffer. They have one son named Roman who was born in 2008. Even though most of his life is advertised on social media, there is one part that he keeps private. With his dedication to Scientology, Michael has only talked about religion on a handful of occasions. In 2016, he opened up in a revealing interview that highlighted the many ways he believes that Scientology positively influences his life on a daily basis.

10. His Recent Filmography

In 2022, he played the role of Tom Lopez in Moonfall and Ansel Argon in Secret Headquarters. In addition, in 2021, he was featured in Tom & Jerry as Terrance Mendoza and as Mr. Julian Roarke in Fantasy Island in 2020 respectively.

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