Michael Rapaport

Born: 20th March 1970
Where: New York

The former stand-up comedian and favourite of Woody Allen landed an Independent Spirit award for his feature debut Zebrahead.

Since then he has impressed in a series of supporting roles including True Romance, Cop Land, Men of Honor and The 6th Day.

As a teenager he was kicked out of seven schools in New York before moving to Los Angeles to perform comedy at The Improve Theatre.

he finally decided to move to Los Angeles. There he performed stand-up comedy at The Improv theatre on Melrose Avenue.

His career took off in 1993 with appearances including the Quentin Tarantino-scripted crime adventure True Romance, where he played the actor friend of Christian Slater.

After a small role in writer-director John Singleton's Poetic Justice he landed a major part in the same director's Higher Learning, playing a college student who becomes a skinhead in a misguided effort to forge an identity for himself.

In 1995, Woody Allen cast him in Mighty Aphrodite (Allen went on to use him five years later for Small Time Crooks).

In 1998, he co-wrote and co-produced the short film about baldness, called Trouble Spot.

Roles followed in James Mangold's Cop Land, The Naked World and the shark caper Deep Blue Sea with Samuel L Jackson.

Subsequent high-profile parts included Men of Honor alongside Robert De Niro and Spike Lee's comedy drama Bamboozled.

In 2000, he starred alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the sci-fi yarn The 6th Day as well as Julie Delpy's self-written indie movie Tell Me.

Roles followed in the thriller King of the Jungle and the con caper Triggermen with Neil Morrissey and Adrian Dunbar.

In 2003, he starred as a hitman in the action thriller A Good Night To Die alongside Gary Stretch and Deborah Harry.