Joseph Vassallo(I)

Joseph Vassallo, is the firstborn of four children. At the tender age of 13, upon visiting his father on the set of The Midnight Express, where the elder Vassallo was working as an extra, Joseph became interested in acting. This led to him enrolling at the prestigious Teatro Manoel. Upon his departure from college, Joseph worked in a 5 Star Hotel for a brief while then left the country to go live in Switzerland, Paris, London, New York, and Los Angeles. Vassallo cruised around the world on-board Cunard luxurious liner QE2, where he worked as a Chef De Rang. Joseph is multi-lingual and is fluent in English, Italian, Maltese and conversant in Swiss German and Spanish.

In the 1980s, Vassallo moved to New York City to pursue taking acting classes and the theater. In 1987/88, Vassallo settled in Los Angeles and continued to pursue an acting career. There, he trained at the Stella Adler Academy and the Joanne Baron / D.W. Brown Studio. Joseph landed a spot at The Actors Studio in Hollywood as an observer under the supervision of the legendary Shelley Winters. Between New York and Los Angeles, Vassallo appeared in about eighteen stage plays, including A Hatful of Rain, A View from the Bridge, She Stoops to Conquer, and Othello. In the early 1990s, Vassallo appeared for the first time on television in a commercial for the cruise line Royal Caribbean.

Since then, Vassallo has appeared in over 100 national television commercials, two of which, for Twix, won the Gold Award at the New York Film Festival and embarked on a Six-Year Campaign, for the brand, "Romano Macaroni Grill". In 1994, Vassallo appeared in the movie "Blankman", with terrific director Mike Binder and opposite hilarious Damon Wayans, Jason Alexander and Jon Pulito. This was followed by roles in "The 4th Tenor" opposite the funny Rodney Dangerfield, "Just Married" with great director Shawn Levy, opposite Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy, and the drama feature "My Brother Jack". In 2004, Vassallo re-teamed with Damon Wayans for "Behind the Smile" were Joseph played opposite, Marlon Wayans. In 2009, Joseph worked with director Rick Famuyiwa and co-starred opposite Academy Award Winner Forest Whitaker and comedian Carlos Mancia in the comedy motion picture, "Our Family Wedding". Vassallo's television credits include guest appearances on Award-Winning Shows such as "Diagnosis Murder", "The West Wing", "Alias", "Damon", and recurring guest roles on "My Wife and Kids".

In 2005 he was hired to work as a writing consultant on the ABC hit television series "My Wife and Kids". From 2007-2009 Vassallo graduated Film School in Los Angeles and in addition worked as Vice President at "Way Out TV" a TV and Film Production Studio, alongside Studio President and CEO, Damon Wayans in Santa Monica California where Vassallo also Wrote, Produced and Directed multiple projects. The experience gave Joseph a better understanding of how the entire film making process works. Thereafter, Joseph dabbled in technology and worked as Chief Operating Officer (COO) at AKABE5, a utility and game applications curator, in Santa Monica, California.

Joseph can be seen on several films and TV shows in the US and around the world and premiering on April 7th, 2017 Joseph Vassallo is proud to portray the legendary race car driver and Ferrari creator, "ENZO FERRARI" at the Ferrari Land, in PortAventura World, Barcellona - Spain.

Recently, Joseph had the opportunity to work as a recurring Guest Star on a mini-series for Netflix and continues to work on a slate of Feature Films and Television projects in development.