Mark Vincent (he apparently got the name Vin Diesel while he was working as a bouncer) was born July 18, 1967, in New York, NY and was raised by his astrologer and psychologist mother, and stepfather, a teacher and theater director. Growing up in an artist's housing project in Greenwich Village with his non-identical twin brother Paul and younger sisters, a young Diesel led a life of uncertainty, not knowing his biological father.

His first break in acting happened by chance, when at the age of seven he and his friends broke into a theatre to vandalize it. A woman stopped them and offered them each a script and $20, on the condition that they would attend everyday after school. This served as Vin's first "real" paying job. From there, Vin's fledgling career progressed from the New York repertory company run by his father, to the Off-Off-Broadway circuit.

At 17 and already sporting a well-honed physique, he became a bouncer at some of New York's hippest clubs to earn himself some extra cash. It was at this time that he changed his name to 'Vin Diesel'. He had taken matters into his own hands when he left Hunter College in New York in the midst of studying for an English degree, in order to get an earlier start in filmmaking, and going to Hollywood for his acting career. Being an experienced theatre actor did not make any impression in Hollywood and after a year of struggling to make his mark, he returned to New York.

His mother then gave him a book called "Feature Films at Used Car Prices" by 'Rick Schmidt', in order to encourage Vin...It pushed him to take control of his destiny and create his own movies. He did, and his filmmaking, writing, producing, and starring role in the film short Multi-Facial (based on his experiences of trying to make it as an actor) screened at Cannes Film Festival in 1995. It received positive reviews, and the extremely low-budget film - which was shot in less than three days at a cost of $3,000.

Despite the lackluster success of his next independent feature, Strays, which was a Sundance entry in 1997, his performance in Multi-Facial was noticed by Steven Spielberg. He created the role of Private 1st Class Adrian Caparzo in Saving Private Ryan for Diesel. Vin, also impressed the director of the animated film, The Iron Giant, and thanks to his guttural voice, he was cast as the voice of the title character in the 1999 film. While it took a while for Diesel to convince filmmakers to take him seriously, 2000 was a year of star-making roles for the actor. Two of his films opened on the same weekend - the sci-fi Pitch Black and drama Boiler Room - two roles that couldn't be more different in the acting range. Diesel added yoga and pilates to his regular workout for his Pitch Black role as Riddick, while he saw his scummy role as Chris the telemarketer in Boiler Room as a way of redeeming himself for the job he once held as a telemarketer, selling overpriced tools. The role on Pitch Black has earned him a legion of devoted fans and the public recognition he deserves.

It was in the summer of 2001 that Diesel proved he could draw in audiences as a leading man, in the testosterone pumped The Fast and the Furious, as Dominic. The film was tops at the box-office and took in millions, and served to prove Diesel's star appeal even further. The Fast and the Furious (2001), a tale of undercover cops in Los Angeles, was not warmly received by critics, however the film was tops at the box-office and took in millions.

After The Fast and the Furious, Diesel re-embraces the action hero role in xXx, an extreme sports - spy movie directed by Rob Cohen. In xXx Vin played Xander Cage, a new breed of secret agent. The producers wanted to launch a new franchise, so Vin went under an intensive trainig, extreme-sports version of weightlifting for three months, motocross and snowboard training and he learned how to speed climb and some SEALs training. He also went under a 1,5-2 hours make up process every day to put Xander's tribal tattoos on. Sony pictures reportedly sunk over $90 million into the picture.

After playing Xander Cage he starred in movie called A Man Apart (2003), produced by One Race Productions (which his production company). In this movie, Diesel plays a DEA agent who, together with his partner, plans to bring down a mysterious figure in the drug trafficking world, known as Diablo - In preparation for the role, Diesel has been training in Ju Jitsu.

Vin Diesel reprises his star-making "Pitch Black" role of enigmatic anti-hero Richard B. Riddick in the new science-fiction-action-adventure "The Chronicles of Riddick" (2004) - also known as "Pitch Black 2", written and directed by David Twohy.

He is also rumoured to be stepping into the boots of Hannibal Barca (2005) but, probably, he will not continue to play Xander Cage in the xXx2, he’s producing it only.