Sunday, Peter Dinklage took home his second Emmy for supporting actor on HBO's "Game of Thrones." The 46-year-old actor has been nominated in the category each year since the series' start.
But long before Dinklage played the iconic role of Tyrion Lannister, the Jersey native worked an office job, performed in a punk-funk-rap band, and bootstrapped his acting career.
In honor of his Emmy, we're taking a look back at Dinklage's unstoppable rise to fame.
Peter Dinklage was born to a Morristown, New Jersey, couple in the summer of '69. He said his childhood was "uneventful." His father sold insurance, and his mother taught music at an elementary school.
Source: Esquire
His parents never treated him like he was special, Dinklage says, despite being the only dwarf in his family. The chance of being born with achondroplasia, a genetic disorder that causes abnormalities in bone formation, is 1 in 25,000.
Source: Esquire
The Dinklages didn't even have a TV set in the house, or so he thought. In his teens, Peter discovered his parents watching a black-and-white TV they had purchased and hid in the bedroom closet. "It was 'Three's Company' from then on out," he says.
Source: The New York Times
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