1. John Alberto Leguizamo Pelaez is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and film producer.
54 Facts About John Leguizamo
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John Leguizamo has appeared in more than 100 films, produced more than 20 films and documentaries, made more than 30 television appearances, and has produced various television projects.
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John Leguizamo is known for his television roles including his television special Freak, a filmed version of his eponymous Broadway show, for which he received the 1999 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.
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John Leguizamo received further Primetime Emmy Award nominations for the Paramount miniseries Waco and the Netflix limited series When They See Us.
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John Leguizamo has appeared on ER, The Kill Point, Bloodline, and The Mandalorian.
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John Leguizamo was born in Bogota, Colombia, the son of Luz Marina Pelaez and Alberto Rudolfo John Leguizamo.
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John Leguizamo's father was once an aspiring film director and studied at Cinecitta in Rome, Italy, but eventually dropped out due to lack of finances.
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John Leguizamo has Indigenous Colombian, European, and some African ancestry.
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John Leguizamo's paternal grandfather was a wealthy Colombian landowner, and his great-great-grandfather Higinio Cualla was Mayor of Bogota for sixteen years in the late 1800s and is considered an important modernizer of the city.
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When John Leguizamo was 3 years old, his family emigrated to New York City, where they lived in various neighborhoods in Queens, including Jackson Heights.
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John Leguizamo was arrested twice as a teenager, once for jumping a turnstile at a New York City Subway station and another time for truancy.
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Post-NYU, John Leguizamo enrolled at LIU Post and at HB Studio, where he took theater classes.
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John 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.
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John Leguizamo made his television debut in 1986 with a small part in Miami Vice.
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In 1991, John Leguizamo wrote and performed in the Off-Broadway production Mambo Mouth, where he played seven different characters.
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In 1993 John Leguizamo portrayed Luigi in the film Super Mario Bros.
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In 1993, John Leguizamo wrote and performed in Spic-O-Rama, where he made fun of the stereotyping of Latinos in the United States.
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In 1995, John Leguizamo created, produced, wrote, and starred in the 1995 Latino-oriented variety show called House of Buggin' on Fox Television.
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John Leguizamo starred in Romeo + Juliet as Tybalt Capulet, as Violator in Spawn, Cholo in Land of the Dead, and Pestario 'Pest' Vargas in The Pest, the latter being one of his few roles as a lead actor in a studio film.
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In 2000, John Leguizamo portrayed both Genies in Arabian Nights, a TV mini-series adaptation of the epic One Thousand and One Nights.
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Later in 2002, on the syndicated version, a question about the movie featured his character, and Meredith Vieira mentioned that John Leguizamo had played Lautrec and had been on the show.
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John Leguizamo portrayed Paul in the Brad Anderson thriller film Vanishing on 7th Street.
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John Leguizamo revealed to CraveOnline that he was not happy working on the television program.
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In 2006, John Leguizamo starred in the television pilot for Edison, a 2006 CBS drama about a Los Angeles detective who relied on impersonations and disguises to solve crimes.
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In 2010, John Leguizamo guest-starred on The Electric Company as himself, rhyming about commas and quotation marks.
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In June 2010, John Leguizamo opened his semi-autobiographical one-man theater show, Klass Klown, based on his memoir Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas, and All the Rest of My Hollywood Friends: My Life.
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In 2011, John Leguizamo received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for his performance in the show.
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In September 2011, John Leguizamo began an international tour of Ghetto Klown in Los Angeles.
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On November 16,2013, John Leguizamo taped Ghetto Klown at The New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, NJ for HBO.
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In 2012, John Leguizamo was cast as Derek Trotter in the American remake of the British BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses.
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In October 2013, Leguizamo started filming for The Crash, starring alongside Frank Grillo, AnnaSophia Robb, Dianna Agron, Ed Westwick, Minnie Driver, Mary McCormack, Christopher McDonald and Maggie Q The film is directed by Aram Rappaport and produced by Hilary Shor, Atit Shah and Aaron Becker.
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In 2014 John Leguizamo starred alongside Jon Favreau in Chef as the line cook Martin, a role he prepared for by working as an actual line cook at The Lion in the West Village.
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John Leguizamo starred in John Wick as Aurelio in 2014.
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In 2016, John Leguizamo played the role of Ozzy Delvecchio in the second season of the Netflix original series Bloodline.
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In 2017, John Leguizamo sang on "Almost Like Praying", a charitable song written and composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
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In January 2018, John Leguizamo was announced as the host of the 63rd Obie Awards held in May 2018 at Terminal 5.
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In 2018, John Leguizamo played undercover ATF agent Jacob Vazquez in the Paramount Network miniseries Waco.
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John Leguizamo received Smithsonian Magazine's 2018 American Ingenuity Award in the History category.
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In 2020, John Leguizamo played Gor Koresh in season 2, episode 1 of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian.
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In 2021, John Leguizamo provided the voice of Bruno Madrigal in the Disney animated film Encanto, which received the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
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John Leguizamo based his character on Steven Seagal, with whom he co-starred in Executive Decision.
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In 2023, he briefly hosted The Daily Show after Trevor Noah's departure; John Leguizamo was part of a series of rotating guest hosts.
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John Leguizamo's brief tenure was a ratings hit, becoming the second most watched of the rotating guests only behind Al Franken.
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John Leguizamo is the host for the PBS series, "American Historia: The Untold History of Latinos", that premiered September 27,2024.
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John Leguizamo married actress Yelba Osorio in 1994 and divorced in 1996 after two years of marriage.
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John Leguizamo married Justine Maurer, a costumer on Carlito's Way, on June 28,2003.
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In 2008, John Leguizamo received the Rita Moreno HOLA Award for Excellence from the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors.
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In 2018, John Leguizamo received an Honorary Degree from Marymount Manhattan College.
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John Leguizamo gave the commencement speech to the Class of 2022 at Vassar College.
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In 2004, John Leguizamo was one of the celebrity supporters of Voto Latino, co-founded by Rosario Dawson.
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In 2016, John Leguizamo authored a searing op-ed in The New York Times, calling out Donald Trump's "racist rhetoric" and urging Latinos to vote.
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John Leguizamo has been an activist directly through his artistic work.
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John Leguizamo starred in the biographical drama set in 1998 about an inner-city teacher and students who compete in the US National Chess Championship.
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John Leguizamo is an outspoken critic of Hollywood's whitewashing in the casting of movies.