Early life

Colosimo was born in Melbourne, one of four children of Italian-born parents from Calabria. He grew up in the inner city suburb of Carlton North.

Career

Colosimo has had some success on film, mainly in Australia. He made his film debut in the coming-of-age story Moving Out in 1983 and featured in 1984’s Street Hero.

Other credits include the cult movie Chopper (2000), in which he played Melbourne drug dealer Neville Bartos opposite Eric Bana; The Wog Boy (2000); Lantana (2001); Walking on Water (2002); The Nugget (2002); Take Away (2004); and Opal Dream (2006). In 2008, he starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2008 American film Body of Lies. In 2010, Colosimo starred in the sequel Wog Boy 2: Kings of Mykonos. Colosimo also appeared in the vampire film Daybreakers, starring alongside Sam Neill, Willem Dafoe and Ethan Hawke.

In 2011 he starred in the film Face to Face, and in 2012 he starred in Starz “Spartacus” Season 4, portraying a pirate leader.

In 2013 he appeared as a coffee shop owner in The Great Gatsby alongside Leonardo DiCaprio.

Television

Despite several movie roles and guest roles in A Country Practice (1994), Good Guys Bad Guys (1997) and Stingers (2002), it was not until his performance as Joe Sabatini in Something in the Air in 2001 and 2002 that resulted in wider exposure. In 2003, he starred in the telemovie, After the Deluge. In 2003 and 2004, he played Dr. Rex Mariani in The Secret Life of Us. Vince also starred as himself in episode 6 of the hit ABC series We Can Be Heroes. He was chosen to play Phil Olivetti in the fictional mini-series within the show.

From 2005 until late 2007, Colosimo had guest roles in Blue Heelers (2005), MDA (2005), Two Twisted (2006) and City Homicide (2007). His American credits include popular shows such as The Practice (2004) and Without a Trace (2003).

2008 was a busy year for Colosimo. He portrayed Melbourne gangland figure Alphonse Gangitano in the Channel 9 series Underbelly (in a guest role); Channel Ten’s telemovie Emerald Falls and Channel Nine’s Scorched. He also appeared in Top Gear Australia’s “Star in a bog-standard car” section in the first episode.

In early 2009, Colosimo appeared in Carla Cametti PD, a six-part series that aired on SBS. In 2010, he had the leading male role in the tele-movie, Wicked Love: The Maria Korp Story about the Maria Korp case.

In 2012 he and his ancestors featured in the SBS show, Who Do You Think You Are?^[8]

He reprised his role of Alphonse Gangitano in the Underbelly sequel/spin-off series Fat Tony & Co. in 2013, featuring in one episode.

In May 2022, Colosimo appeared as a contestant on the sixth season of The Celebrity Apprentice Australia.

Other endeavours

Colosimo was part-owner of a cafe in Northcote, Espresso Alley, with Vince Mazzone.

He also sampled his voice on Snitch by Vanessa Amorosi her 2009 album Hazardous (album)

Personal life

He has a daughter, Lucia (born 2002), with his former wife, actress Jane Hall. Colosimo and Hall worked together on A Country Practice in 1994. He lived in Westgarth, a suburb of Melbourne, until late 2015. The mother of his second child is Australian actress Diana Glenn with whom he had a son, Massimo, in April 2014. The couple separated two months after the birth of Massimo. From 2018 his partner has been Sabella Sugar, a producer with Ultrafilms.