Luis Guzman

Born: August 28, 1956
Where: Puerto Rico

Guzman's breakthrough performance came courtesy of Brian De Palma's gangster movie Carlito's Way.

The intensely Hispanic actor - who was brought up in New York - then consolidated his position as Maurice T Rodriguez in the porn spoof Boogie Nights.

Before he became an actor, Guzman worked as a social worker until 1988 when he landed small part in Crocodile Dundee 2.

De Palma was so impressed with Luis' crowd-pulling powers and cast him in Snake Eyes after Carlito's Way.

The ensemble-cast of Magnolia was backed up by increasingly popular Guzman, who went on to play a featured role in Steven Soderberg's Academy Award winning Traffic.

Punch Drunk Love saw Guzman opposite Adam Sandler and Emily Watson, and he played the humorously villainous Cosimo in the Soderberg-produced feature Welcome to Collinwood.

Recent work has included Anger Management (again with Sandler) and the Dumb & Dumber prequel Dumb & Dumberer.

Upcoming projects include The Runaway Jury with John Cusack and the comedy Waiting with Busta Rhymes.