Clifton Collins Jr. was born on June 16, 1970. Collins is a native Angeleno who intended to become a star in the Latino entertainment industry. His family took part in the entertainment field, as his great grandparents were a Mexican trumpet player and a Spanish dancer, and his grandfather was a famous actor, better known as Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, who received a star on the walk of fame last year. Collins has managed to break into the acting field and has played some great roles. His acting career began in 1988, and really ascended towards the ‘90s.

A couple of his first acting roles took place in the films Fortress (1993) and The Stoned Age (1994). One of his more intense roles included his role as Cesar in One Eight Seven (1997), alongside Samuel L. Jackson. Following this film, he played roles in The Replacement Killers (1998), The Wonderful Icecream Suit (1998), and Tigerland (2000).

Collins’ acting career recently took an epic shift as he took on the role of killer Perry Smith in the film Capote (2005). Following this achievement, Collins has excelled himself into the position of co-producer for Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders (2006), where he takes on the role of serial killer Kenneth Bianchi. Collins has been nominated and won several awards. In 2006 he was nominated for an ALMA award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture for Capote (2006). Also in 2006, he was nominated for an Emmy award for Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for Thief (2006). For this year’s CMT Awards, he was nominated for directing the Zac Brown band video for their single Chicken Fried (Group Video of The Year and USA Weekend Breakthrough Video of The Year). Following these nominations, in 2007 Collins won the Copper Wing Award at the Phoenix Film Festival for Best Ensemble Acting in Little Chenier (2006). Another great accomplishment for Collins includes his win in 2001 for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture for Traffic (2000). Collins is currently starring in Crank 2 (2009) and Sunshine Cleaning (2009.)

Up next, Collins will star alongside Ben Affleck in the Miramax film Extract, a comedy that follows the personal and professional problems endured by the owner of a flower-extract plant. The film is set to be released in September 2009. He also recently finished working on Boondock Saints 2 (2009) and the next Broken Lizard comedy film Freeloaders (2009).

Clifton Collins, Jr. will attend the premiere of his Paramount film Star Trek on Thursday, April 30 at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. CHRIS PINE, ZACHARY QUINTO, ANTON YELCHIN, ZOE SALDANA, LEONARD NIMOY and others will also attend.

Agent: William Morris Agency (Philip Grenz)
310/859-4000;
Manager: Roar 310/586-8222
PR: BWR (Gina Hoffman) 310/550-7776;
Event Contact: Paramount
(Amy Baker) 323/956-6878