I first saw Michael Peña in the Oscar winning movie "Crash" where he played a Latino who had managed to get his family out of a "bad" area but was still facing discrimination because he had tattoos and "looked like a gang member". He won an ALMA award for " Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture" for his performance.
This year he has received two ALMA nominations and has won a Black Reel Award for "Best Supporting Actor" in Walkout , the true story of a young Mexican American high school teacher, Sal Castro (played by Michael) who mentors a group of students in East Los Angeles. His students decide to stage a peaceful walkout to protest the injustices of the public school system.