Michael Pena Net Worth: How the Mexican-American Struggling Actor Became One of Hollywood's Most Bankable Stars

Michael Anthony Pena, or Michael Pena, was born in Chicago, Illinois, on January 13, 1976. The actor was raised by working-class parents and grew up in a family of immigrants from Mexico.

Pena's parents originally worked as farmers in Mexico. The actor spent most of his youth in the North Lawndale neighborhood, where he also finished high school.

Since 1994, Pena has been pursuing an acting career. According to Celebrity Net Worth, he began playing in independent movies as a teenager. Despite this, it still took another 10 years before Michael Pena finally broke through into mainstream films like "Million Dollar Baby" in 2004.

Michael Pena Movie Career

In 2006, Michael Pena was in two movies: "Babel," which Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu directed, and "World Trade Center," which was about a disaster and was directed by Oliver Stone.

The film about the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center got good reviews from critics. Pena was nominated for the ALMA Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture for his role as police officer Will Jimeno.

After being in movies like "Shooter" (2007), "The Lucky Ones" (2008), and "Everything Must Go" (2010), he was again nominated for an ALMA Award for Favorite Movie Actor for his role in "Battle: Los Angeles" (2011). This military sci-fi war movie also did well at the box office. Then, the list of his films goes on through the years, Book My Show reported.

Pena's most recent roles were in "12 Strong" (2018), the Netflix sci-fi horror film "Extinction" (2018), and the superhero film "Ant-Man and the Wasp" (2018), where he played Luis, Scott Lang's (Ant-Man) loyal sidekick.

He also appeared in "The Mule" (2019), "Dora and the Lost City of Gold" (2019), "Fantasy Island" (2020), and the action-animation comedy "Tom & Jerry" (2020).

Michael Pena Net Worth

Michael Pena had few opportunities in the 90s, so he just booked what he could.

"Fifteen years ago, it was really, really tough because there were these breakdowns for [casting] where it would specifically say, 'Lead part: Caucasian; second part: Caucasian; Caucasian, Caucasian, Caucasian," Pena told The New York Times in 2018.

The actor also had to deal with being constantly stereotyped and getting "gangster parts all the time." But he did not give up, and instead, he worked with what he had.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Pena's net worth is $12 million at present. The Things reported that it is the wealth that he has built up over the years by starring in several hit movies.

Regarding his way of life, it is safe to say that Pena has kept things simple. In 2014, the actor said he chose to live in the Los Feliz neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, because it was so lovely.

"I've been here long enough to see Silver Lake has changed," he told Los Angeles Magazine. "It started off with a comic book store [sic], then slowly but surely these great places came in," he added. Los Feliz and Silver Lake are adjacent neighborhoods.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

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