Speaker: Vinnie Jones

Vinnie Jones started his career as a professional soccer player playing for some of the UK’s most prominent teams including Wimbledon, Leeds, Chelsea, Sheffield, QPR and eventually was the Captain of the Welsh team. He became iconic across the UK and Europe, not only from his exquisite skills in soccer, but also as a performer on the pitch: Jones always had the crowd on their feet supporting him the whole way through his games.

It was in 1998 that Vinnie was approached by up and coming director Guy Ritchie for a role in his cockney caper movie, Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels. Vinnie accepted the challenge and from this point, the former footballer had a new calling: movie star. Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels skyrocketed to the top in Europe and the USA, and Vinnie’s new career ascended in the same direction. He went on to star in hits such as Snatch, Gone In Sixty Seconds and Swordfish.

From this point onward, Vinnie started to gain recognition from the industry, earning a barrage of accolades and awards, with Hollywood realizing it had a true talent in a 6’ 1” broken-nosed package. To this date Vinnie has appeared in over 40 movies, working with some of the film industry’s top producers and directors including Mathew Vaughn, Jerry Bruckheimer, Brett Ratner, and Gary Lucchesi. He was seen in the massive blockbuster, X-Men 3: The Last Stand as as the Juggernaut, forever placing him in the iconic league of actors alongside Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry and Patrick Stewart. In another iconic role, he played the scowling soccer coach illustrating both his likeability and comedic side in DreamWorks’ She’s The Man. Other films include The Midnight Meat Train, the Quentin Tarantino-produced feature film Hellride, and Escape Plan, where he starred opposite Sylvester Stallone, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Vinnie revisited his comedic side on the Sony Pictures feature film Year One, where he starred alongside Jack Black and Judd Apatow. Vinnie can most recently be seen in independent crime thriller The Big Ugly, starring opposite of Ron Perlman and Malcolm McDowell.

On the TV side, Vinnie recently joined season 2 of Law & Order: Organized Crime, as well as wrapping a heavily recurring role on the hit CW’s show Arrow and a recurring role opposite Jack Cutmore-Scott in the ABC drama series, Deception. Prior to that, Vinnie landed one of the lead roles in the ABC half hour, musical comedy, Galavant, created by Dan Fogelman (Crazy Stupid Love, The Guilt Trip, Tangled, Last Vegas). He also starred in his own documentary series for National Geographic Channel called “Vinnie Jones: Russia’s Toughest.” The show aired in prime time on September 2013 in over 170 countries to great success. To date Vinnie has worked on dozens of prime time television shows spanning many different networks and countries.