Vin Diesel, born Mark Sinclair Vincent on July 18, 1967, is an American actor, writer, director and producer. Diesel is of Italian and African-American ancestry. He made his stage debut at age seven when he appeared in the children's play Dinosaur Door, written by Barbara Garson. The play was produced at Theater for the New City in New York's Greenwich Village. His involvement in the play came about when he, his brother and some friends broke into Theater with the intent to vandalize it. They were confronted by the Theater's Artistic Director, Crystal Field, who instead of calling the police, handed them scripts and offered them parts in the upcoming show. He remained involved with the theatre throughout adolescence, going on to attend the city's Hunter College, where his creative writing studies led him to begin screenwriting. Diesel became an active film-maker in the early 1990s, first earning notice for the short film Multi-Facial, which was selected for screening at the 1995 Cannes Festival. Diesel has identified himself as a "multi-faceted" actor as a result of early difficulties finding roles due to his mixed heritage. Diesel's first film role was an uncredited appearance in the 1990 film Awakenings. He then produced, directed, and starred in Multi-Facial. He made his first feature-length film, 1997's Strays, an urban drama in which he was self-cast as a gang boss whose love for a woman inspires him to try to change his ways. Written, directed and produced by Diesel, the film was selected for competition at the 1997 Sundance Festival, leading to an MTV deal to turn it into a series. He was then cast in Steven Spielberg's 1998 Oscar-winning film Saving Private Ryan. He earned critical acclaim for voice work as the title character in the animation film The Iron Giant (1999). He followed with a major role in Boiler Room (2000) and then got his breakthrough role as the anti-hero Riddick in Pitch Black (2000). He attained action hero super stardom with the box office hits The Fast and the Furious (2001) starring opposite Paul Walker, and xXx (2002). In 2004, he reprised his role as Pitch Black's Riddick in The Chronicles of Riddick which did moderately well at the box office. In 2005 he played a lighthearted role in the comedy film The Pacifier, a surprise box office success. In 2006 he chose a dramatic role playing real-life mobster Jack DiNorscio in Find Me Guilty. Although he received critical acclaim for his performance, the film did poorly at the box office. Later that year he made a cameo appearance in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, reprising his role from The Fast and The Furious. Diesel was originally offered the lead in 2 Fast 2 Furious but turned it down. He was also offered the chance to reprise his role from xXx in xXx: State of the Union but turned it down as well. In 2007, he was set to produce and star as Agent 47 in the film adaptation of the video game Hitman, but eventually pulled back and served as executive producer on the film instead. In 2008 he starred in the science-fiction action thriller Babylon A.D. In 2009, Diesel again played Dominic Toretto in the fourth film of The Fast and The Furious series, entitled Fast & Furious. As of 2011, Diesel is set to star in Fast Five, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage and Riddick. In addition, he founded the production companies One Race Films, Tigon Studios and Racetrack Records that he continually works with. Diesel has played Dungeons & Dragons for over twenty years and wrote the foreword for the commemorative book 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons. He has a daughter, Hania Riley, born April 2, 2008, with his girlfriend, model Paloma Jimenez. Diesel stated he has been seen as a hard man, but is in touch with his soft side as a father.