Giovanni Ribisi

Giovanni Ribisi is a very talented actor who has appeared in a number of films alongside of many A List actors such as Angelina Jolie and Nicholas Cage.

He has a twin sister who is also a actress. Ribisi was born on December 17, 1974 to a talent agent and a musician in Los Angeles – he was therefore destined to be a actor!

He first got into acting at the age of nine when he and his sister appeared on television. Ribisi was seen on a number of shows ranging from The Wonder Years to The New Leave It to Beaver and My Two Dads.

He also played Lisa Kudrow’s younger brother, Frank, Jr, on the hit sitcom Friends. Recently he has appeared in a number of episodes of the NBC comedy, My Name Is Earl.

Ribisi’s film roles have ranged from action “Gone In 60 Seconds” which he starred as the younger brother of Nicholas Cage to the romantic “The Other Sister” where he played a man with learning difficulties alongside Diane Keaton and Juliette Lewis. He then went on to appear in such films as “Cold Mountain” which starred A-Listers Jude Law and Nicole Kidman.

Ribisi was then nominated for a Teen Choice Award for his role as Seth Davis in The Boiler Room.

His most recent release that has been a major box office hit has been Golden Globe winning movie, “Avatar” .

Vin Diesel

Vin Diesel is an actor, director, producer and a writer. He is best known for his starring roles in several action films.

Early Life

Mark Sinclair Vincent, known today as “Vin Diesel,” was born on July 18, 1967 in Greenwich Village. He became interested in acting at around seven years old. Actually, he was interested in vandalism at seven years old and happened upon acting in the process of breaking into a theater.

As a young man he attended Hunter College for three years before dropping out. He studied creative writing. He changed his name to Vin Diesel while working bouncer in a nightclub.

Career

In the 1990′s he made the films Multi-Facial and Strays. Multi-Facial made it to the 1995 Cannes Film Festival and Strays went to the Sundance Film Festival in 1997. Near the end of the decade he played Pvt. Adrian Caparzo in Saving Private Ryan. Vin’s big breaks came at the turn of the century with the roles that propelled him to super-stardom.

He played Richard B. Riddick in his first starring role in the sci-fi thriller Pitch Black. Next he took on the role of a street racing young gang leader, Dominick Toretto in The Fast and the Furious. That film prompted a barrage of imitators in candy painted old Honda Civics to take loudly to the streets throughout America in the early 2000s.

In 2002 he played Xander Cage, an extreme sprorts athlete in xXx. Other noteworthy films are; The Iron Giant (voice), Knockaround Guys, A Man Apart, The Pacifier, and Babylon A.D. He is currently working on several projects including a sequel to Pitch Black.

Personal Life

Vin guards his personal life more closely than other celebrities. He has been involved with Michelle Rodriguez in the past but is currently in a relationship with the model Paloma Jimenez. She is the mother of his only child, Hania Riley, born in 2008.

Interesting Facts

• Diesel is a huge fan of Dungeons and Dragons.
• He was a successful telemarketer before he was a star. Who could say no to that deep voice?
• He has a fraternal twin named Paul.
• He is half African-American and half Italian-American.
• He once appeared in an instructional breakdancing video.

Profile of the Writer / Director Ben Younger

Ben Younger is an American born screen writer and Director made famous by his first major motion picture “Boiler Room”.

Younger Years

Younger was born October 7, 1972 in Brooklyn, NY. He was raised in Eltingville Staten, Island, until his parents split up, after which he was shuttled between their homes in New Jersey and Flatbush. Raised a member of the Modern Orthodox Jewish Church, he attended yeshiva before beginning a course of study in political science at Queen’s College. He continued there, working as a both a student and stand up comic, until his father was diagnosed with colon cancer, forcing him to abandon his studies.

After leaving the college, he began looking toward a career in major politics, working as a legislative aide to Alan Hevesi. From this position he went on to manage the political Campaign of Melinda Katz, a Queens Democrat as she ran for a seat in the State Assembly. In doing so he made history, at the age of 21, becoming the city’s youngest campaign manager.

Beginning an Entertainment Career

Younger’s interest in politics was short lived and by 1995, he was looking to return to stand-up comedy or a related field. He began working as a writer and director, working with music videos, commercials and short films. He then broke into the major film industry by working as a lighting tech on a number of major productions.

Filmography

In 1995, he worked with a broker to develop his first film, “Boiler Room”. It was produced with great success, and released in 2000. He followed the success with the release of his second film, a romantic comedy, “Prime”, in 2005.

In addition to his film success, Younger has also written scripts for television.

Nia Long

In the Beginning

Nitara Carlynn Long was born October 30, 1970, to Doc and Talita Long of Brooklyn New York. She is of Trinidadian Descent. Her parents divorced before she had even turned three years old. Upon divorcing, her mother moved the two of them to Iowa. Only to move again years later to South Central Los Angeles.

Their Struggle

Nitaras mother Talita had earned two master degrees, but still had trouble finding a job. Upon arrival to Los Angeles, Talita took various low paying jobs to earn a living. Due to the lack of work, Nitara and Talita had a hard struggle ahead of them.

Nia’s Hobbies

In her childhood Nitara picked up the nickname Nia. Nia’s childhood was blessed with an array of hobbies. These hobbies included ballet, tap, gymnastics, acting, guitar, and jazz. In all of this Nia even made time for the Girl Scouts. She was a very talented child, and driven to success with a desire to help her mother.

Onto the Big Screen

Nia’s acting career was started by a woman named Betty A. Bridges. She is the mother of the famous child star Todd Bridges. Todd was best known for his role in Diff’rent Strokes. Betty was Nia’s acting coach for fifteen years.

Nia got her television start on the soap opera Guiding Light. She played her part for two years, and then landed the role of Lisa on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Her transition from the sitcom world onto the silver screen, was in 1991 when she played alongside Cuba Gooding Jr, in John Singleton’s groundbreaking Boyz in the Hood.

Since then her career has sky rocketed. With the new millennium she was named by people magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world. And later that year, won third place in Black Magazine as the 10 sexiest women of the year.

In the years that Nia has been acting, she has played her part in more than 46 different movies, and TV series. She has got to work with many different actors including Whoopi Goldberg, Samuel L. Jackson, and Susan Sarandon.

The Boiler Room-shaw capital management

Boiler Room is a 2000 fictional drama film which was written and directed by Ben Younger. The film had an initial budget of $26 million and grossed $28.7 million. While the gross revenues were not too impressive, the film has developed a cult following and it is well regarded as giving a look at the world of fraudulent investment brokerage firms.

Cast

Boiler Room stars Giovanni Ribisi, who portrays Seth Davis. The cast is loaded with Hollywood stars, many of which were relatively unknown at the time the movie was filmed.

Cast members include Vin Diesel, Ben Affleck, Nia Long, Scott Caan, Tom Everett, and Jamie Kennedy.

Plot Summary

Boiler room takes place in New York City where at the beginning of the film, college dropout Seth Davis is running an underground casino which is visited largely by local college students. Davis, who seems more interested in get rich quick schemes than hard work, is suddenly approached by a friend who works for an investment brokerage firm named JT Marlin. To gain his father’s respect, Davis takes the position with the brokerage firm.

At first, Davis is amazed by the high intensity work environment and is in awe of his fellow brokers who seem to be very wealthy and fun loving. Davis experiences immediate success within the firm and is instantly accepted among his peers.

Eventually Davis realizes that the firm is taking advantage of their clients by creating an artificial market for defunct companies. Davis realizes once the firm is done selling the stock to their clients (and receiving lofty commissions), the investors are left holding stock for a defunct company and that the stock ultimately plummets to zero.

While Davis is planning his exit from the company, he is approached by the FBI who asks him to help bring down the firm. Davis agrees to help the firm and during his exit he does everything he can to get one of his client’s money back. Davis, who is the son of a federal judge, also pleads to keep his father’s name out of the newspapers which ultimately wins the respect of his father.

As the films ending credit roll, the FBI can be seen entering the JT Marlin parking lot ready to arrest everyone on site.

Ben Affleck

Ben Affleck’s career has been quite the roller coaster ride. Few actors have had such up and down careers. He has gone from indie cult star, to blockbuster action hero, to a virtual laughing stock (think Gigli), all the way to critically acclaimed actor and director. Along the way, his star studded relationships have made him tabloid fodder, and his love for poker have made him a regular of the celebrity poker circuit. Let’s take a closer look at Hollywood’s pretty boy underdog, and why he’s the biggest contradiction in town.

Affleck got his big break in the mid nineties acting in one of Kevin Smith’s cult comedy classics, Mallrats. That was the start of a long term professional relationship with Smith, appearing in all of his subsequent movies and staring in one of them (Chasing Amy.) Ben’s mainstream breakthrough was Good Will Hunting, which he co-wrote along with childhood pal Matt Damon. After that he became a action superstar with his appearance in 1997′s Jerry Bruckheimer disaster film Armaggedon, alongside Bruce Willis, Liv Tyler and soon-to-be-famous comedic actor Owen Wilson. Affleck expanded his action-star credentials with starring roles in Pearl Harbor and Sum of All Fears, released in 2001 and 2002, respectively.

2003 was a turning point in Ben’s career, unfortunately a turn for the worst. That year he starred in two critically panned box office and critical flops in rapid succession, Gigli and Reindeer Games. All actors make poor choices from time to time, but these were especially egregious ones. Gigli is now regarded is one of the worst films of all time. Many wondered if he would ever bounce back.

Bounce back he did, in a big way. His heartbreaking performance as declining Superman actor George Reeves in the 2006 film Hollywoodland was extremely well received by critics. For his performance, Affleck won the Volpi Cup award for best actor at the prestigious Venice Film Festival and was nominated for a Golden Globe. Ben was back. 2007 was a watershed year in his career. His directorial debut, the wrenching Boston neo-noir film Gone Baby Gone, starring his brother Casey extremely well received, and rightly so. It was a pitch perfect drama, painting a bleak but colorful portrait of Boston’s seedy underbelly.

Since then, Affleck has gone on to star in four more feature films, Smokin Aces, State of Play, He’s Just Not That Into You and Extract. At 37, Ben seems to have no where to go but up. It will be exciting to see what happens next in the long, strange trip that is the career of Ben Affleck.

Boiler Movie

Ben Affleck 
TALENT 
Ben Affleck’s career has been quite the roller coaster ride. Few actors have had such up and down careers. He has gone from indie cult star, to blockbuster action hero, to a virtual laughing stock (think Gigli), all the way to critically acclaimed actor and director. Along the way, his star studded relationships have made [...] 
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The Boiler Room 
THE BOILER ROOM 
Boiler Room is a 2000 fictional drama film which was written and directed by Ben Younger. The film had an initial budget of $26 million and grossed $28.7 million. While the gross revenues were not too impressive, the film has developed a cult following and it is well regarded as giving a look at the

Boiler Room (2000) - IMDb

 A college dropout gets a job as a broker for a suburban investment firm, which puts him on the fast track to success, but the job might not be as legitimate as it sounds.