Joe Pingue Biography

Giuseppe "Joe" Pingue (born 1976) is a Canadian actor and film maker.

Life and career

Pingue is an award winning actor and film maker born in Canada to Italian immigrants. He has worked as a character and lead player in everything from Independently produced films to Hollywood blockbusters. He has been a series regular on several Canadian TV programmes and voiced several characters in cartoons and animated feature films.

Pingue was born in Canada, the youngest of five siblings. Both of his parents are Italian immigrants from the region of Abruzzo. He began doing plays and musicals during his high school years at Ridley College in Ontario, Canada. In 1995, he completed training at the three-year acting conservatory at York University in Toronto and began working as an actor in independent theatre, film and television and TV commercials. In 1997, he played Barry in the New Yorker production of Ladies Night, a play which was based on the film The Full Monty.

In 2003 Pingue played the title role of "Mommo" in the CBC mini-series "Il Duce Canadese", a six-hour mini series about the internment of Canadian citizens with Italian heritage. In 2006, he portrayed Leo in the film with the same name and was nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award and ACTRA Award for this performance. In 2007, he produced and wrote the short film The Answer Key which was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award (Best Live Action Short) and an ACTRA nomination for his portrayal of Joseph Strobe. From 2006 to 2008, he was a series-regular on the comedy series Rent-a-Goalie, playing the part of Joey Almost, a character that ended every sentence with the word almost. In 2008, Pingue was a series regular on the short-lived FX comedy Testees, playing the role of Nugget.

In 2008, he was awarded Canada and Ontario arts council grants to produce and direct the short film Chili & Cheese: A condimental Rift which went on to win awards in North American and European film festivals. In 2013 Pingue wrote and produced and acted in the short film "Parking Plot" which Premiered at the Atlantic Film Festival.

Some recent feature film credits Antiviral,The Boondock Saints, Pushing Tin, Repo Men, Blindness, The Book of Eli, Maps to the Stars, Dream House, The Art of the Steal, Pompeii, and Pacific Rim.

His television work includes appearances on Degrassi: The Next Generation, Wild Card, A Nero Wolfe Mystery, 24 Hour Rental and Across the River to Motor City. He also is the voice of Tamago on the animated series The Very Good Adventures Of Yam Roll In Happy Kingdom and the voice of Entree in the cartoon Spliced!

He was nominated for an ACTRA award for outstanding male performance in 2006. He was nominated for the 2006 ACTRA Awards (outstanding performance) for his role in the film Leo, and the 2008 Actra Awards (outstanding performance) for his role in The Answer Key. In 2009, he received awards internationally for his short film Chilli & Cheese including best in show at Bristol Encounters in the UK, and the Marin County Fair in California.