Misha Collins is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Castiel in the television show Supernatural on the CW.
Birth name: Misha Dmitri Tippens Krushnic
Date of birth: August 20, 1974
Place of birth: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Basic History
Misha was raised by his mother Rebecca, and has two younger siblings, a brother named Sasha and a sister named Danielle. His family was very poor, and as a result, they moved around a lot. He attended Greenfield Center School but graduated from Northfield Mount Herman in 1992. After high school, Misha persued a variety of interests. He worked as an intern at the White House during the Clinton administration, was a producer and copy writer for a show called "Weekly Edition" on National Public Radio and took an EMT course before he attended the University of Chicago for social theory.
After four years at college, Misha travelled to Tibet and Nepal and spent several months in a monastery. He has said that he enjoyed his time there and still attends monastic retreats because he enjoys the silence. Also while he was staying in Washington, D.C., he began an internet-start up company that made educational software for urban teenagers.
In October 2001, Misha married his girlfriend Victoria Vantoch. They have two children, a son named West and a daughter named Maison.
The Name Thing
In case anyone was wondering about the name thing, here's what I found out about that. "Misha" came from the name a former boyfriend of his mother, a Russian man named Mitya, but she got the name a bit garbled up. "Collins" is his maternal great-grandmother's maiden name. I suspect he changed it because Misha Dmitri Tippens Krushnic seems like a bit much to be saying all the time.
Acting Career
Eventually, Misha's wanderings took him into the realm of acting. His career mainly consisted of bit parts in TV shows and movies. He has starred in several films, one of which was portraying Paul Bernado in the movie Karla. Misha has said that he regrets taking this role considering the dark, disturbing nature of the crimes it potrays and has asked that his fans not watch it.
In 2008 Misha auditioned, and got, the role of Castiel in Supernatural, which would turn out to be his big break.
Supernatural
Originally the role of Castiel was only supposed to last for a few episodes, but the extremely positive fan reactions led the writers to make the role into something more substantial. He was a recurring character in seasons 4 and 8, a series regular for seasons 5, 6 and 9, and a special guest star for 7 and 8. He has also been signed on as a series regular for season 10.
Thanks to the strongly positive reception his character received, Misha quickly became a fan favorite. He has attended multiple fan-organized conventions and has been very popular at these events.
Social Media
One of the more unusual things about Misha is his approach to social media. He has a Twitter account that he seems to monitor on his own but he doesn't follow any other accounts. In July of 2013, while fielding questions about his charity scavenger hunt (which I'll tell you about here in a minute), he actually gave out his phone number and invited people to call him. That phone number has obviously been disconnected by now, but there are all sorts of fan accounts on the internet, recalling details of their phone calls to Misha.
Mishapocalypse
According to the website Know Your Meme, which researches the validity of internet memes, the Mishapocalypse was an event started by fans of the show. These fans decided that they were all going to change their user photos for online sites such as Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook to the same photo of Misha, from the 2009 San Diego Comic Con, for April Fool's Day. The term "Mishapocalype" has been submitted to Urban Dictionary and is still currently under review by Know Your Meme. Misha's response to seeing his face plastered over the internet was a tweet saying that he was going to have facial reconstruction surgery so he didn't have to see his face again.
Charity
Misha is very active in charitable organizations and events. He is the co-founder of the charity Random Acts. Random Acts' goal is to conquer the world, one random act of kindness at a time. One of the charity events that he helps put together every year is GISHWHES.
GISHWHES
The Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen is a week-long scavenger hunt where teams of people from all over the world get together to complete a list of tasks in order to win a prize. The scavenger hunt came about because Misha enjoyed participating in a campus-wide scavenger hunt while attending college, and he is very involved in creating the list of items and tasks the participants must acquire or do (which explains why some of them are so very bizarre). The items on this list include charitable acts, such as taking a picture of your team performing a puppet show for the children in a children's ward, or hugging a war veteran, but there are some strange items, like a picture of a woman wearing a dress made entirely of bacon or wearing a popcorn wig while diamond shopping. GISHWHES has broken several Guinness World Records, including Most Charitable Acts of Kindness and Most Hugs Worldwide.
Sources
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misha_Collins
CW website: http://www.cwtv.com/shows/supernatural/cast/misha-collins
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hcx9pSnlzQ (Misha answering fan question about his name)
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aya_l20o7Q0 [Nerdist podcast where Misha discusses GISHWHES)
Supernaturalwiki: http://www.supernatural-fan-wiki.com/page/Misha+Collins
Know Your Meme: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/mishapocalypse (Mishapocalypse)
Daily Dot: http://www.dailydot.com/fandom/supernatural-misha-collins-phone-number/ (The phone number incident)
Random Acts Homepage: http://www.therandomact.org/
GISHWHES Homepage: https://www.gishwhes.com/