Vin Diesel's Real Name: Mark Sinclair

Quick answer: Vin Diesel was born Mark Sinclair on July 18, 1967. Library records also list him as Mark Sinclair Vincent, after the surname of the stepfather who raised him. He adopted the name Vin Diesel as a teenager working as a nightclub bouncer in New York. He is best known as Dominic Toretto in the Fast & Furious franchise and as the voice of Groot (Britannica; Library of Congress).

Real name and early life

Britannica gives Mark Sinclair as his other name and his birthplace as Alameda County, California. People also reports that he was born Mark Sinclair in California. The Library of Congress name authority files him as "Diesel, Vin" with the cross-reference "Vincent, Mark, 1967-," and one citation reads "b. Mark Sinclair Vincent July 18, 1967, New York, N.Y." The sources therefore differ on whether Vincent was part of his name at birth and on his birthplace.

Britannica says he grew up in New York City with his mother, his fraternal twin brother, and his African American stepfather, Irving Vincent, a theater manager who gave him some of his first stage roles. People reports that the family lived in Westbeth, an artists' housing complex in Manhattan's West Village. The Washington Post describes him in the 1980s juggling off-Broadway roles and telemarketing by day while working nights as a bouncer at Tunnel, a Manhattan club. An LOC note says "Vin" is a shortened form of Vincent and "Diesel" was a nickname from friends who joked that he ran on diesel.

Career highlights

Diesel attended Hunter College but dropped out to pursue acting in Los Angeles. After little success, he returned to New York in 1995 and made the short film Multi-Facial, about a biracial actor struggling to get roles. He worked as a telemarketer to fund his first feature, Strays (1997). Steven Spielberg saw Multi-Facial and cast him in Saving Private Ryan (1998).

He played escaped convict Richard Riddick in Pitch Black (2000) and two sequels, and voiced the title robot in The Iron Giant (1999). The Fast and the Furious (2001) made him a star. He played agent Xander Cage in xXx (2002) and xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017), and starred in The Pacifier (2005) and Sidney Lumet's Find Me Guilty (2006).

He returned to the Fast series as star and producer with Fast & Furious (2009), Fast Five (2011), and Furious 7 (2015). Britannica says the last earned more than $1.5 billion. He voiced the treelike Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and later Marvel films, including Avengers: Endgame (2019).

Name notes for searchers

Vin Diesel is a stage name. Mark Sinclair is the birth name reported by Britannica and People, and Vincent is his stepfather's surname. Searches for "Mark Vincent" may also refer to him.