Personal life

Peña was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Nicolasa, a social worker, and Eleuterio Peña, factory worker. Peña's parents were originally farmers, and emigrated from Mexico; his father was from Villa Purificación, Jalisco, and his mother was from Charcas, San Luis Potosí. Peña is a Scientologist.

Career

Though Peña has been a regular in independent productions since 1994, his breakthrough performances came in two Best Picture Oscar-winning Paul Haggis-penned films, Million Dollar Baby (2004) and Crash (2005). The former was helmed by Clint Eastwood, and the latter was directed by Haggis. Though both films are critically acclaimed, Peña received attention for his particularly emotional performance in Crash. The following year, he appeared on the Golden Globe winning series, The Shield. In 2006, he starred in Oliver Stone's film based on the September 11, 2001 attacks, World Trade Center. He also had a small role in Alejandro González Iñárritu's Academy Award nominated and Golden Globe-winning film Babel. This gives him the rare distinction of having appeared in three consecutive Oscar nominated films. He also starred alongside Mark Wahlberg in Shooter (2007) as novice FBI agent Nick Memphis.

In 2006, Peña starred in the HBO film Walkout as Sal Castro, a Mexican-American high school teacher who inspires a group of East L.A. high school students to fight for Chicano rights. In 2009, he played a mall security guard alongside Seth Rogen in Jody Hill's Observe and Report.

In 2012, he co-starred with Jake Gyllenhaal as a Los Angeles police officer, in End of Watch. The same year, he began filming Chávez, a biopic about the life of American labor leader César Chávez, who founded the United Farm Workers. Peña stars as Chávez. He appeared alongside Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, and Jon Bernthal in the World War II-set action film Fury (2014), and portrayed Luis in Ant-Man (2015).

Peña also voiced the character Ricky in the FX animated comedy Chozen. He also formed the Los Angeles rock band Nico Vega in 2005, which is named after his mother Nicolasa. He left the band in 2007 to concentrate on his acting career but co-wrote the track, "Beast" which reached #26 on the Billboard Hot Rock Songs Chart.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	My Fellow Americans	Ernesto
1997	Star Maps	Star Map Boy
1998	Boogie Boy	Drug Dealer
1998	Cucaracha, LaLa Cucaracha	Orderly
1999	Bellyfruit	Oscar
2000	Gone in 60 Seconds	Ignacio	Credited as Michael A. Pena
2001	Buffalo Soldiers	Garcia
2003	United States of Leland, TheThe United States of Leland	Guillermo
2003	Love Object	Ramirez
2004	Calcium Kid, TheThe Calcium Kid	Jose Mendez
2004	Crash	Daniel	ALMA Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture Nominated - Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast
2004	Million Dollar Baby	Omar
2005	Little Athens	Carlos
2005	Sueño	Jimmy
2006	Fifty Pills	Eduardo
2006	Babel	John - Border Patrol
2006	World Trade Center	Will Jimeno	Nominated - ALMA Award for Outstanding Actor - Motion Picture
2007	Shooter	Nick Memphis
2007	Lions for Lambs	Ernest
2008	Lucky Ones, TheThe Lucky Ones	T.K. Poole
2009	Observe and Report	Dennis
2009	My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?	Detective Vargas
2010	Everything Must Go	Frank Garcia
2011	Battle: Los Angeles	Joe Rincon	Nominated - ALMA Award for Favorite Movie Actor
2011	Lincoln Lawyer, TheThe Lincoln Lawyer	Jesus Martinez
2011	Good Doctor, TheThe Good Doctor	Jimmy
2011	30 Minutes or Less	Chango
2011	Tower Heist	Enrique Dev'reaux
2012	End of Watch	Officer Zavala	Nominated - Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male Nominated - MTV Movie Award for Best Latino Actor
2013	Gangster Squad	Navidad Ramirez
2013	Turbo	Tito Lopez (voice)
2013	American Hustle	Paco Hernandez	New York Film Critics Online Award for Best Ensemble Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Acting Ensemble Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble
2014	Cesar Chavez	César Chávez	ALMA Award for Special Achievement in Film Imagen Award for Best Actor in Feature Film
2014	Frontera	Miguel
2014	Fury	Trini 'Gordo' Garcia
2015	Ant-Man	Luis
2015	The Vatican Tapes	Father Lozano
2015	Vacation	New Mexico Cop
2015	The Martian	Major Rick Martinez
2015	Hell and Back	Abigor (voice)
2016	War on Everyone	Bob Bolano	Filming
2016	CHiPs	Frank "Ponch" Poncherello	Filming
2016	Collateral Beauty		Filming
2017	My Little Pony	TBA (voice)	In production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Pacific Blue	Rabbit	Episode: "Bangers"
1997	Touched by an Angel	Reynaldo Estes	Episode: "At Risk"
1998	Homicide: Life on the Street	Luis Carrenza	2 episodes Credited as Michael Anthony Pena
1998	Sentinel, TheThe Sentinel	Johnny	Episode: "Night Shift" Credited as Michael A. Pena
1998	7th Heaven	Roger	Episode: "Let's Talk About Sex" Credited as Michael A. Pena
1999	Moesha	Alejandro	Episode: "Life Imitating Art"
1999	Profiler	Alex Lopez	Episode: "Spree of Love" Credited as Michael Anthony Peña
1999-2000	Felicity	Brian Burke	5 episodes
2000	The District	Sante	Episode: "The Real Terrorist"
2001	Roswell	Fly	2 episodes
2001	Men, Women & Dogs	Miguel	2 episodes
2002	American Family		2 episodes
2002	Andy Richter Controls the Universe	Patrick	Episode: "Wedding"
2003	The Twilight Zone	Noah	Episode: "Sunrise" Credited as Michael A. Peña
2003	ER	Police Officer	3 episodes
1997, 2004	NYPD Blue	Ferd Wilmer Lopez	2 episodes
2005	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Juanito Concha	Episode: "Snakes"
2005	Shield, TheThe Shield	Detective Armando Renta	10 episodes
2006	Walkout	Sal Castro	Movie Black Reel Award for Network/Cable - Best Supporting Actor Imagen Award for Best Actor - Television Nominated - ALMA Award for Outstanding Actor - Television Series, Mini-Series or Television Movie
2008	My Name Is Earl	Circus	Episode: "No Heads and a Duffle Bag"
2010	Eastbound & Down	Sebastián Cisneros	5 episodes
2011, 2013	American Dad!	Marguerite (voice)	2 episodes
2014	Chozen	Ricky (voice)	10 episodes
2014	Gracepoint	Mark Solano	10 episodes

Video game

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2016	Lego Marvel's Avengers	Luis	Ant-Man downloadable pack

[ Source: Wikipedia ]