Capote

Background:

American prolific actor Mark Pellegrino has amassed nearly 90 credits under his belt since making his screen debut in 1987. Moviegoers may well-recognized him for playing Dick Hickock on the biopic “Capote” (2005), from which he shared a Screen Actors Guild nomination, and with his appearances in such vehicles as “The Big Lebowski” (1998), Mulholland Dr. (2001), “Twisted” (2004) and “National Treasure” (2004). His more recent and upcoming credits include “The Number 23” (2007), “Boy of Pigs” (2008), “The Thacker Case” (2008), “Disappearing in America” (2008), “Two:Thirteen” (2008), “TiMER” (2008) and “Bad Meat” (2009). On the small screen, the Los Angeles native is known as Paul Bennett on Showtime's series “Dexter” (2006-2007) and Bobby James / Robert Tibideau on “The Beast” (2001). He has also guested in such popular series “ER,” “The X-Files,” “NYPD Blue,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “Without a Trace” and “Grey's Anatomy.” Pellegrino, who is a teacher at Playhouse West in North Hollywood, has had roles in many of the company's theater productions, including “The Exonerated” and “9-11.”

L.A. Boy

Childhood and Family:

Mark Ross Pellegrino was born on April 9, 1965, in Los Angeles, California. He studied the Meisner Method with Bob Camegie at Playhouse West.

An avid fan of sports, Mark spends much of his free time practicing various sports like Judo, kickboxing, Karate, martial arts, Ju-Jitsu and professional Thai boxing.

Dexter's Paul

Career:

22-year-old Mark Pellegrino began his career on television with a guest spot in the Fox drama series “L.A. Law,” penned by Josef Anderson. He moved on to feature films later that same when he landed the small roles of Frankenstein on the Whoopi Goldberg/Sam Elliott comedy “Fatal Beauty” and Punk in the Charles Bronson action/thriller “Death Wish 4: The Crackdown.” His next TV assignments arrived when he was cast in the Emmy-nominated film “What Price Victory” (1988) and snagged a one-episodic role in “Doogie Howser, M.D.” (1989). In between, the Los Angeles native acted in the movies “No Holds Barred” (1989), directed by Thomas J. Wright, and “Night Life” (1989), starring Scott Grimes and John Astin.

Pellegrino continued to alternate between television and film work throughout the 1990s. He guested in such TV shows as “Hunter” (1990), “HBO's Tales from the Crypt” (1990), “Northern Exposure” (1992), “The Commish” (1993), “Deadly Games” (1995), “ER” (1996), “Nash Bridges” (1996) and “The X Files” (1999) and appeared in TV movies like “Class of '61” (1993), “Knight Rider 2010” (1994), “The Cherokee Kid” (1996) and “Born Into Exile” (1997). However, it was the big screen that consumed much of Pellegrino's time. He was seen in Jeffrey Reiner's “Blood and Concrete” (1991), Richard Donne's “Lethal Weapon 3” (1992), Nick Mead's “Bank Robber” (1993), Jeffrey Reiner's “Trouble Bound (1993), Michael Karbelnikoff's “Last Ride” (1994), “For Life or Death” (1996), Steve Kaman's “Soul of the Avenger” (1997), Tom Lazarus' “Movies Kill” (1997), Joel Coen's “The Big Lebowski” (1998), Rowdy Herrington's “A Murder of Crows” (1999) and Mary Lambert's “Clubland” (1999).

Entering the new millennium, Pellegrino appeared with Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Neve Campbell, Jamie Lee Curtis and Casey Affleck in “Drowning Mona” (2000), a crime/comedy directed by Nick Gomez. His subsequent film credits were Stephen James' “Certain Guys” (2000), James B. Rogers' “Say it Isn't So” (2001), Mulholland Dr. (2001), “Treading Water” (2002), Chris Haifley's “Ronnie” (2002), William Friedkin's “The Hunted” (2003), “Moving Alan” (2003), David Mamet's “Spartan” (2004), “Twisted” (2004), Jon Turteltaub's “National Treasure” (2004) and “Ellie Parker” (2005). For his work in Bennett Miller's “Capote” (2005), in which he was cast in the role of Dick Hickock, Pellegrino jointly won a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. In the meantime, he also found time working on several TV projects. He played Bobby James / Robert Tibideau in three episodes of “The Beast” (2001) and Steve Dansick in two episodes of “NYPD Blue” (2002) as well as had an episodic roles in such shows as “The Practice” (2003), “CSI: Miami” (2003) and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (2005).

2006 to 2007 saw roles in the movies “Caffeine,” “Suspect” (TV) and “The Number 23.” He also played insulting husband and former convict Paul Bennett on eight episodes of the Showtime crime/drama series “Dexter” (2006-2007), which starred Julie Benz, Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter and many more, and appeared in episodes of “The Unit” and “Without a Trace” (both 2006), as well as “Burn Notice,” “Grey's Anatomy,” “Women's Murder Club” and “K-Ville” (all 2007).

Recently starring as Cardinal Reynolds in the short “The Last Days of Limbo” (2008), Pellegrino has completed filming “Boy of Pigs” (2008), a drama directed by William Olsson and starring Gretchen Mol. In addition, he has roles in five forthcoming projects: “The Thacker Case” (2008), “Disappearing in America” (2008), “Two:Thirteen” (2008), “TiMER” (2008) and “Bad Meat” (2009).

Apart from his TV and film work, Pellegrino has been acted in a number of Playhouse West theater productions. Among his credits are “The Exonerated,” directed by Jeff Goldblum, “9-11,” directed by Scott Caan, “Minor Holiday,” directed by Scott Caan, “Lou Gehrig Didn't Die of Cancer,” “Of Mice and Men,” “Italian-American Reconciliation,” “Lonestar,” “Winter into Spring” and “Welcome Home Soldier.”

Awards:
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