Michael Peña
☼ Born on 13 December 1976, in Chicago, Illinois, USA
BiographyMichael Peña was born and raised in Chicago, to Nicolasa, a social worker, and Eleuterio Peña, who worked at a button factory. His parents were originally from Mexico. After graduating from high school, he went to an open casting call for the Peter Bogdanovich feature To Sir, with Love II (1996), and to his surprise, beat out hundreds of other young men for a role. After relocating to Los Angeles Peña quickly booked a succession of roles in features including Star Maps, My Fellow Americans (1996) (opposite Jack Lemmon and James Garner), La Cucaracha (1998) (winner of the Best Picture in the Austin Film Festival), Bellyfruit (1999), and the Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer feature Gone in 60 Seconds (2000). Michael resides in Los Angeles, where he plays bass guitar with his band, plays golf, and boxes for relaxation.
In the role of actor
A Wrinkle in Time (12/03/2018)
A girl is sent on a quest to rescue her father in A Wrinkle in Time. It has been four years since Meg Murry’s (Storm Reid) astrophysicist father (Chris Pine) disappeared without a trace. One day, Meg, her younger brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe), and friend Calvin (Levi Miller) meet the astral travelers Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), Mrs. Who […]
Tower (31/07/2016)
This review was originally published as part of my coverage of Hot Docs 2016 The United State’s first mass school shooting is recounted in Tower. On August 1, 1966, a lone sniper climb atop the tower at the University of Texas and began to unleash a violent assault. Through the eyes of many of those present, […]
Tower (27/04/2016)
The United State’s first mass school shooting is recounted in Tower. On August 1, 1966, a lone sniper climb atop the tower at the University of Texas and began to unleash a violent assault. Through the eyes of many of those present, the events of these terrible day are recreated through rotoscoped reenactments. Tower is a […]
The Martian (07/10/2015)
An astronaut finds himself stranded on the surface of Mars in The Martian. Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is a botanist on the Ares III mission to Mars, lead by commander Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain). When a storm results in an emergency evacuation, Mark is hit with debris and presumed dead. However, it turns out that Mark survived […]
Extinction (19/07/2015)
Two men and a young girl try to survive in a post-apocalyptic frozen wasteland in Extinction. Nine years after a zombie apocalypse, the world has frozen over and all of humanity appears to be extinct. Jack (Jeffrey Donovan) tries to live a relatively normal life with his daughter Lu (Quinn McColgan), while Patrick (Matthew Fox) […]
Ant-Man (18/07/2015)
An ex-con becomes a size changing superhero in Ant-Man. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is a cat-burglar, who has just been released from prison. Desperate to be reunited with his daughter, Scott accepts a burglary job from his old cellmate Luis (Michael Peña) and ends up stealing a strange suit that causes Scott to shrink down […]
American Hustle (15/01/2014)
From director David O. Russell (The Silver Linings Playbook) come this 1970s-set crime comedy, which is the fresh winner of three Golden Globes, including Best Picture Comedy/Musical. Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) is a New York-based conman, who successfully operates a loan scam operation with his mistress Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams). When the two of them […]
Tower (12/09/2012)
According to the Q&A after the screening, the film Tower was not intentionally meant to be about Asperger’s Syndrome. However, as someone who has Asperger’s and was able to greatly relate with the main character of the film, I will say that I believe that Tower is probably the most genuine and unbiased cinematic portrayal of […]
Tower Heist (06/11/2011)
Tower Heist is one of those films where you don’t have to think too much about what it is about. Essentially it’s about a group of people who rob a tower. There not really that much more to say about the film other than the fact that I thought it was quite funny. You can also […]
30 Minutes or Less (14/08/2011)
30 Minutes or Less is an action-comedy from the director of Zombieland. It can easily be said that this film doesn’t have as original a premise as the previous, but I still found it to be quite hilarious. It’s a very simple plot: a looser of a pizza delivery boy (Jesse Eisenberg) gets strapped with a […]
Observe and Report (12/04/2009)
The busy weekend involving both my birthday and Easter has prevented me from posting my thought on this film until now. At the very least I can say that this was a funny film, even though it was clear that Seth Rogen‘s character was a bi-polar sociopath and you technically shouldn’t be laughing at the […]
Shooter (24/03/2007)
This weekend I was deciding between seeing this action thriller or checking out the big screen return of, my childhood favourites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Well, I decided go for the more “grown up” of the two (though I still will still see that Ninja Turtles movie one way or the other). So, what […]