I am the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perditon. – Misha Collins as Castiel on Supernatural, Season 4 Episode 1 , Lazarus Rising.

Dmitri Krushnic, or more as he’s more commonly known, Misha Collins, is best known for his role as the angel Castiel on CW’s Supernatural. A lot of us can’t help but wonder if he really is an angel- he sure looks like one.
But Misha, while most definitely a pretty face, is much more than that.

Let’s take a look at five things about Misha’s life and what he’s done with it, in celebration of Supernatural’s impending season-12 return.

#1: He was a White House intern just prior to the Lewinsky-Clinton Affair.
Before he was an angel on TV, he took a four-month internship at the Executive Mansion in DC, which ended in 1995 right before Monica Lewinsky began hers. After hearing about the affair, he followed the matter closely and even has an article published on the Baltimore Sun’s website, given date being Jan. 29th in 1998.
#2: As a child, he was once homeless.
When asked to talk about his charity, Random Acts, in a 2010 interview, Misha came to mention that when he was a child, his family was “.. on welfare, and very poor.” He went on, explaining that when he was eleven, he lived on the farm of a family that took his in. He earned his keep by doing farm work, although he was “virtually useless” at that age. He told the interviewer that it was, at most, an extension of their kindness in that it allowed him and his family to feel like less of a burden. Speaking of kindness….
#3: He founded the Random Acts of Kindness foundation.
It started as a suggestion, but it grew into so much more. A lot of celebrities have charities, but I just find it particularly interesting how it all started. It was a joke on Twitter, but his fans (or as he calls them, his minions) took it very seriously, as well as some other creative personalities with resources to make things happen. Today, Random Acts is a legitimate 501, non-profit, tax-exempt foundation. Anyone can be a RAKtivist, or ‘kindness ambassador’, as the website refers to them. Even just holding the door open at school qualifies you.
#4: He’s named after his mother’s Russian ex-boyfriend.
How his mother convinced Misha’s father to let her do that, I have no idea. Either way, the fact remains. The story goes like this. His mother was a foreign exchange student in Russia, during high school. There, she met a boy named Dmitri, also called “Mitja”, pronounced “MIHT-yah” (although she always called him Misha, thinking the ‘j’ was soft). Apparently, she really liked the nickname Misha. So, she gave it to her first born son.
#5: He actually thought he was auditioning for a demon.
2008 Misha read Revelations fervently in preparation for his audition for Supernatural… as the role of a demon, he thought. That’s what the creators told him, anyways. After he got the role, they sprung the fact that he was actually going to be playing an Angel, the now beloved Castiel. We’re not complaining.

The season 12 premiere of Supernatural airs Thursday, October 12th at 9|8 PM Central time.

September 2016 Editon