The Fast and the Furious franchise is one of the most successful film franchises in Hollywood history, edging out the massively successful teen drama series Twilight, all seven combined Spider-Man movies from Sony, and even the Transformers series even though each of those movies are huge international successes. It’s a bit of a formula for success. Audiences love car chases, over the top action sequences, and, a newer trend, sprawling cinematic continuation. And The Fast and the Furious series is all of that reduced down to a potion for success. But much of that success, and the cinematic continuity itself, is owed to its core set of lead actors. Critic Leah Greenblatt notes that “the movies are nothing if not consistent in their themes of loyalty and brotherhood and blowing stuff up — and in retaining the core crew, including Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, and towering late-game additions Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham.”

Many of those names might bring to mind some interesting stories about how these stars earned their stardom, and not to mention a spot in this huge franchise. There’s the wrestler turned movie star, the musician turned movie star, and a couple of industry mainstays who ground their ways through the world of acting the old fashioned way like Jason Statham and Vin Diesel, right? Well not exactly. Jason Statham was discovered after modeling cars, and thereafter modeling for French Connection. But it’s Vin Diesel whose story we’re interested in today.

Although he now goes by the short and sweet name “Vin,” he was born Mark Vincent, and grew up in an environment where acting would be a familiar thing since his stepfather was a theater manager in LA, but his first performance wouldn’t come until his family had moved to New York City. It was there where he, his brother Paul, and some other friends tried to break into the Theater for the New City, or TNC as it is sometimes called, with the intent of vandalizing it. They were confronted not by police or by security, but by the theater’s artistic director. She decided that rather than calling the cops on the would be vandals, she would offer them roles in the upcoming shows at the theater. Surely for all of the youngsters it would have seemed like a lucky break, but for young Vincent it turned out to be a lucky break twice over, when acting became his career and his passion. He went on to study screenwriting, wrote, directed, and performed in various projects, and eventually earned his major acting debut in Saving Private Ryan based on the performance he gave in one of his earlier somewhat autobiographical films that he made. And the rest is history. From breaking and entering, to breaking onto the Hollywood scene, and all because someone saw some potential in him.