Чисто для себяEarly Life
Collins was born: Misha Dmitri Tippens Krushnic [2] [3] on August 20th 1974, in Boston Massachusetts. The origins of the name Misha: came about from a boyfriend his mother had whilst on a trip to Russia she made during her college years. His name was Mitya, but Misha’s mother misunderstood her boyfriend's nickname, and so mistakenly named her son Misha much to his father’s chagrin. And the last name, Krushnic, goes back six generations in Canada although the family are not sure where it came from, Russia, the Ukraine or Poland. Misha’s mother, Rebecca Tippens was a story teller and now runs The Center for Cultural Evolution, AKA The Round House[4]. Misha also has a brother Sasha, three years his junior, and a sister, Danielle eleven years younger.[5].
When he was growing up, his family were very poor and were evicted a lot. He was in a new school at least once a year. However, after attending the Greenfield Center School,[6] Misha graduated from Northfield Mount Hermon in 1992. During high school, Misha's house burned down. In the following year, he pursued a wide variety of interests, including: a six month job at NPR headquarters, National Public Radio, in 1995. He worked as a producer and copy writer on a show called "Weekly Edition". It was a job he loved.
He also had a White House internship, in the Office of Presidential Personnel in charge of selecting nominees for presidential appointments. In the 90s, there were 3,500 jobs given out by appointment ranging from the Secretary of Agriculture and Ambassadors to low-level jobs. He also worked in construction, and did an EMT certification course.
He then went on to the University of Chicago for undergrad, where he studied social theory and spent four years there.[7] He took a year off from college and went to Nepal and Tibet. Spending several months in seclusion at a monastery. It is something he continues to this day but now he simply goes to a monastic retreat “where it’s just silence,” he says. “I go and sit and meditate in silence for 10 days. Don’t talk to anyone, don’t talk about anything – I’m just with myself. It always restores me a little bit. You always learn something about yourself when you spend 10 days alone with yourself.” One thing he’s learned? “I now feel like we have a purpose on the planet, which is kind of a nice feeling to have.”
Whilst in Washington, DC he began an internet start-up company that was making educational software, a non-profit summer program for urban teens.
[edit] Career
His first acting role was the part of a four year-old girl opposite his mother when he was five years old. The play was three hours long and they performed in a tiny theatre at U-Mass Amherst. He had one line, "Yes I can. I can believe it because it's true."[8]
However, after his brush with politics, and on a whim, Collins decided to take an acting class. He soon found himself in the midst of a career change. He got a call for a role in Liberty Heights (directed by Barry Levinson), and then landed a part in Girl, Interrupted. Changing his name to the now familiar Misha Collins, he moved to Los Angeles. Collins was next seen on an episode of NYPD Blue before he was cast in the series Seven Days as Sergei Chubais. He gained much popularity in 2002, when he appeared on Par 6.
Having travelled in Russia and mastered the accent, he found this skill helped him win the role of the villainous assassin, Alexis Drazen on season 1 of 24 tv series. Collins filmed two movies in 2003; these were Moving Alan and Finding Home. He had a small role in The Crux, and later worked on the 2005 television production titled 20 Things to Do Before You’re 30. Also that year, he landed a part on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and played Bret on three episodes of ER (TV series).
He became even more recognized when he got the role of Paul Bernardo in Karla (film) 2006. The film caused a lot of controversy in Canada, as the crime was still fresh in their minds.[9] Collins has said about playing the role: “Up until the first violent scene, I was unsure of whether I was going to be able to put it off. And when we started shooting some of the more violent scenes, I was really surprised to see lurking somewhere in the depths of my psyche were these seeds of violence that I had never given any fertilizer or water to, that had never sprouted in any way in my ordinary life, and yet there was something I could tap into there. And that really took me aback. Really was frightening“.
He followed this up with an appearance on Monk. He was also seen on NCIS (TV series): Naval Criminal Investigative Service, as well as on Close to Home. After his portrayal of Joey Wheeler in Reinventing the Wheelers, he was seen on Without a Trace, The Grift, and 2008's Over Her Dead Body.
In 2008, Collins was cast in the role of Castiel, an angel on the hit CW show Supernatural. There was great secrecy around the introduction of the character. When the role was being cast, it was advertised as being for a demon. It was only at the audition that Collins found out Castiel was an angel. After appearing in thirteen episodes as a guest star in season 4, Collins is now credited as a season regular for the current fifth season. [10]
He is also soon to be seen in the made for TV film Stonehenge Apocalypse.[11]
In 2008, Collins was associate producer on Loot, a documentary about two young American soldiers, who loot valuable treasures and hide them overseas before returning to civilian life in America. Sixty years later, back in America, neither man seems remorseful about his war crimes. Both want to recover the treasures they perceive as their own. [12]
[edit] Personal Life
In 2002 Collins married his high school sweetheart, Victoria Vantoch.[13]
Collins had flirted with the idea of returning to politics. He briefly considered running for neighbourhood council in Los Angeles before withdrawing his application. “I went to sit in on one of the meetings, and it was the most tedious, boring hour and a half of my life. So I withdrew my candidacy, and almost won in spite of that. I got 51 votes!” [14]
He is a published poet. So far, his poems, “Baby Pants” and “Old Bones “have been published in three literary magazines and journals: the 2008 edition of the Columbia Poetry Review, Pearl Magazine and The California Quarterly 21.[15]
To pay his way through college he worked as a carpenter and a woodworker. He built his Los Angeles house, and has built most the furniture in it. There are only a couple of things on the deck that he didn't make. It apparently took almost two years of full time work and four years of tinkering.[16]
He is a founding member of the Los Angeles Map and Touring Club.[17] They go out and devise tours of whatever strange facilities they possibly can. They have been to a foundry where they were casting bronze, to a sewage treatment plant down in Long Beach and to the San Pedro Harbour where they were loading all the containment vessels. They have been to the largest landfill in the country and hiking in the Angeles National Forest. One winter, they went cross-country skiing to the Sierras. Where they built and slept in igloos for a few days. He also enjoys back-country snowboarding, kayaking, He was actually the first person to solo kayak down the LA river, biking, running, he has competed in two Los Angeles marathons, in 2004 and 2005, or hiking in the mountains.
Misha is a regular poster on Twitter, and he has termed his followers on there his "minions". [18] [19]
Most recently he had a crash on his bicycle going about 55 miles per hour.[20] Requiring a stay in the hospital. Whist there he had to undergo an MRI that showed a birth defect in his spine which is the reason for his flexibility that helped him get the role of Manny Skerritt in the TV show Nip Tuck, even though he threw his back out for about 10 days. It is probably also the reason he was the most flexible boy in the history of his high school. [21]
[edit] Filmography
Year Title Role
1998 Legacy Andrew
1999 Liberty Heights (uncredited)
Girl, Interrupted Tony
Charmed Eric Bragg
2000 NYPD Blue Blake DeWitt
2001 Seven Days Sergei Chubais
2002 24 Alexis Drazen
Par 6 Al Hegelman
2003 Moving Alan Tony Derrick
Finding Home Dave
2004 The Crux Man Hanging from the Rope
2005 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Vlad
2005–2006 ER Bret
2006 NCIS Justin Ferris
Monk Michael Karapov
Close to Home Todd Monroe
Karla Paul Bernardo
2007 Without a Trace Chester Lake
CSI: NY Morton Brite
Reinventing the Wheelers Joey Wheeler
2008 Over Her Dead Body Brian
The Grift Buster
2008–Present Supernatural Castiel
2009 Nip/Tuck Manny Skerritt
Stonehenge Apocalypse Jacob