 John Leguizamo was born in Bogotá, Colombia on July 22, 1965 to Mr. and Mrs. Leguizamo (sorry, no first names here) and raised in Queens, New York (just north of Puerto Rico for those of you who are geographically deficient). John learned quickly to use his wit and quick humor as a means of survival on the tough streets in the barrios where he grew up. John patented a means of self defense new to those around him; when confronted with danger (about to get his Colombian ass kicked) he would spontaneously develop Tourette's Syndrome spouting out obscenities and acting like a retard (Ever catch his act?) After a painful childhood hi-lighted by a funky-freaky-Kentucky Fried-de-flowering (Check out FREAK for the skinny on this one) our hero decided it was time for a more serious pursuit of his love for acting...like an idiot. A "cumulative" genius, scoring a 1600 on his SATs, (cumulative, by the way, meaning that the 1600 was a running total from each of his four attempts), John set his sights on the hot bed of academia, the Learning Annex. He received his associate's degree and moved on to bigger and better things, namely playing Latino junkies in off-off-off-off-off Broadway productions. Eventually, however, he caught the eye of industry professionals and earned his way into the company of some of New York's legendary teachers including Lee Strasberg, Herbert Berghoff and Wynn Handman. By the late eighties John was a regular at open mike nights at the local comedy clubs. John finally got the attention he was craving in 1991 with "Mambo Mouth" an Off-Broadway one-man show spotlighting the best and most effective characters that he had been workshopping for years. John has established a career that defies categorization. With credits in television, film and theater, his work encompasses a variety of genres including comedy, classical drama, action adventure and psychological thriller.
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