Who Is Misha Collins?

Misha Collins was announced as the winner of the Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Actor category at the 2015 Peoples Choice Awards, beating the likes of Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley from The Vampire Diaries and his fellow Supernatural stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. What makes his win particularly outstanding is that he wasn’t even one of the original nominees, he was a ‘write-in’ by his fans!

Misha Collins

But who is this Misha Collins and how do his fans have the power to win him a Peoples Choice Award? Well gather round because I am about to take you on a magical journey of Unicorns, Octophants and....sock monkey hats?

American Actor Misha Collins, born Dimitr Tippens Krushnic, is a beloved husband to his high school sweetheart Vicki Vantoch, father of two children named West (star of Cooking fast and fresh with West!) and Maison. He is also a promoter of kindness, evil scavenger hunt master and full time overlord!

Some Misha Facts!

Misha Collins

I present to you 7 facts about Misha:

Fact 1. Misha has a BA in Social Theory from The University of Chicago.

Fact 2. Misha interned at the White House during the Clinton Administration.

Fact 3. Misha is a published poet with works in "The Columbia Poetry Review," "The California Quarterly" and other literary journals.

Fact 4. A film Misha helped produce, "Loot," won "Best Documentary Feature" at the LA Film Festival in 2008 and aired on HBO.

Fact 5. Misha produces a cooking show with his son, "Cooking fast and fresh with West"

Fact 6. Misha has spent several months in seclusion in monasteries in Yosemite, Tibet and elsewhere.

Fact 7. Misha is a certified lifeguard, EMT and motorcyclist who resides in Los Angeles.

All facts credit goes to Misha Collins IMDb page.

Misha as the angel Castiel

CW / Via tumblr.com

Misha rose to fame on the Hit US TV show Supernatural, making his BAMF! Entrance as the Angel Castiel at the beginning of Season 4!

tumblr.com

Misha’s character, Castiel, fast became very popular with many of the Supernatural fans and Misha's constant and hilarious interaction with the fans meant that he was very soon lovingly adored and followed by a large faction of fans. Fans that, in true Misha style, he named his 'Minions of Misha'

With great power comes great responsibility!

Misha Collins

Misha realised that he could utilize the power of his minions to carry out great acts of kindness!

Here die-hard minion Sandy explains what wondrous things Misha did with his power:

"It was in January 2010 when an earthquake hit Haiti that Misha had an idea of using his celebrity status and followers as a force for good, he tweeted saying that he had set up an account with UNICEF and invited people/fans to donate to it.
Within hours $30k had been raised and the minion army was born. Amazed at the reaction and success of his appeal for help Misha then went on to form his own non-profitable charity Random Acts."

Random acts of kindness.

Random Acts / Via haiti.randomacts.org

From the RandomActs website:

“At Random Acts, it’s our mission to conquer the world one random act of kindness at a time. We are here to inspire acts of kindness around the world both big and small. We provide a vast network of caring people with the encouragement and support they need to change lives for the better.”

But Misha didn’t stop there, oh no he went on to support projects such as building the Jacmel Children’s Center in Haiti with the proceeds from Random Acts. He also created GISHWHES to help promote acts of kindness.

Visit www.randomacts.org for more details

What’s with this GISHWES thing?

Misha Collins

You may have heard the term GISHWHES, but what is it? and what does it have to do with Misha? Well during his college years Misha used to take part in some extreme scavengers hunts, so he decided to create his own hunt for his fans to participate in and to promote acts of kindess.

Misha explained GISHWHES in a 2013 Interview with Guinness world records:

“The primary reason is that I loved the idea of thousands of people from all over the world connecting to create incredible things that would make people think twice about… well, everything.
I also realized it would be a great way to inspire people to do good in the world - which is in line with our non-profit - Random Acts.
Most importantly, I wanted to see what an eight-foot Tyrannosaurus rex made entirely out of sanitary napkins would look like. It's impressive!”

GISHWHES stands for Greatest International Scavenger Hunt The World Has Ever Seen and it has broken countless world records including largest scavenger hunt and largest online photo album of hugs. Each year the hunt has a new mascot in the form of an animal hybrid, in 2014 it was an Octophant called Elopus!

Visit www.gishwhes.com for more details.

A Mishapocalypse!

deanwinschester / Via rebloggy.com

Mishas Minions took inspiration from not only his kindness but also his creativity.

They took a particularly scary picture of Misha and used it to create a Mishapocalypse.

Minion Sandra explains:

"The Mishapocalypse which took place on April 1st 2013. Misha along with his fellow actors Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles were well known to the fans for the pranks they played on each other so on this day we decided to prank Misha with everyone changing their Twitter icon to the one that he was using and flooding Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook all through the day and evening with images of Misha…the sillier the better. We have also had 'Misha love-days' where we have not only posted our favourite photo’s but shared stories, some heart-breaking about how he has helped us cope with personal difficulties and been the inspiration to carry on throughout, but what has always come across time and time again is Misha’s own humility and gratitude for our love and support"

A death to Normalcy - Meanwhile Misha!

Misha Collins / Via pinterest.com

One of the other main reasons that Misha is such a big hit with the fans, aside from promoting random acts of kindness and inspiring creativity, Is that his mantra is 'A Death To Normalcy!' Mishas rebellion against normalcy has led to some hilarious pictures floating around the Internet, check out the 'Meanwhile Misha' tag!

Misha has spoken many times about how he has never really 'fitted in' and that it should be OK, even encouraged, to rebel against what is 'normal'. This makes his fans, that also don't fit in, feel accepted and more comfortable with their uniqueness, not ashamed to be different and to not follow the pack.

I think Amy - (@MishaHead on Twitter) explains this best:

"I was in the hospital a lot so I watched supernatural a lot and I fell in love with Càstïel so then I looked up who played him and read all about Misha Collins and discovered that he wanted to conquer the world with kindness. I thought that was one of the best things I've ever heard so I started doing random acts of kindness and it has made me feel really good to help others. I also have severe anxiety and have participated in GISHWHES. Through GISHWHES I've stepped outside of my box done crazy things even though it made me nervous and thus become less anxious. I also have something called Cerebral palsy and have been bullied my whole life for not being "normal" and through being a Fan of Misha I've learned that it is ok not to be "normal" what is normal anyway?! So as you can see Misha has helped me with learning to be kind, with horrible anxiety, and knowing that it is ok not to be like everyone else. This is what Misha means to me. This is why I support him so passionately in everything he does."

What Misha means to the fans.

Misha Collins

I asked Jules Wilkinson from the Superwiki why she thinks people love Misha.

“Why do people love Misha? You might as well ask why people love rainbows!
Death to normalcy is our joint mission. We're kindred spirits, with a love of fun and silliness. He encourages naughtiness that spreads joy to others. He inspires generosity and compassion. He entertains us, he listens to us, and he plays with us.
Even if you've never met him, Misha feels like a friend.”

More Misha love.

Misha Collins

Ally Cooper @tadeudz73

"From the moment I watched Misha Collins' explosive entrance on Supernatural my life has changed dramatically. I followed the show obsessively and discovered that not only is he a talented actor, poet and director he is also a remarkable human being and philanthropist. He has inspired me to become a better person, explore my creativity, defy normalcy, travel the world to attend conventions and while doing so, share kindness wherever I can. He's a wonderful role model and I'm extremely proud to be his fan."

Hansi Oppenheimer ‏@troubledgirl
"Misha reminds me to take chances with my art and to be generous to those in need. <3"

Jocelyn Gould ‏@colinandjo1
"Bc Misha's an Angel on &off screen!Castiel is my fav character.Love Random acts too."

readyjoan ‏@RebeccaJoan32
"bc Cas is the best character on spn, he's a great actor, he's great to his fans, rl angel and HILARIOUS"

Samaa ‏@GreenSamaa
"IMHO a good actor must be 1.talented & able 2 play ANY role AND 2.good at interacting w/ fans & nice 2 them So Mish is a great actor!"

the abster ‏@DCasbutt
"He has worked so hard! Castiel's character is always growing and Misha plays these changes perfectly"

Rachel Elisabeth ‏@raelee514
"Misha is underrated, throughout his time on SPN he’s shown so many layers to Cas in all versions of Cas."

Erin Lynn Esente-Kester
"Misha has inspired me to be a more generous person, & through GISHWHES, to be more outgoing."

Terri Love Alter
"Misha inspires me to give more,and to live a less "ho-hum" kind of life. I'm thinking about going to my 1st spn con,and am getting in touch with lots of fans online for now because I'm into spn now because of Misha. I'm also trying Kale in my diet now..."

Chloe Platt
"Misha means a lot to me like many of the people working on supernatural but his so inspirational and really saved my life, im glad he starred the role of castiel because he really makes the part and the guys friendship is awesome on and off screen. Misha inspires me to Live a happy life and not to care about what people think and to always look out for others cause every random act counts. he brightens up a lot of worlds for people and im thankful"

Kathy Dodge
"Like others here, Misha has inspired me to be kind to others and to not worry so much what others think."

How did Misha get nominated for a PCA Award?

CW

So we come back to the PCA Awards, I asked Minion Sandra what she thought about Misha's win:

"From a minions perspective the moment the nominations were announced and it was evident that Misha wasn’t in any of the categories we were stunned but did we wail and bemoan the injustice of it all? No we did what we do best, organise, fortunately there was a loop hole by which if you wanted to vote for someone who wasn’t nominated you could type in their name and vote for them. So this is what we did over and over and over again, not only that, the call went out to all Supernatural fans to join us in getting Misha through to the next round, which they did and he went on to win the Favourite Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Actor award.

Until he became a finalist Misha had no idea what we were getting up to and once the voting started for the awards we were determined to get him over the finish line.

Misha Collins may not have the biggest fan base in the entertainment industry but he has one of the loyalist and most devoted, why? I can only give you my reason and it’s this, he is loyal to us, he makes himself open and available to us, we never have to pretend to be anything other than who we are with him, however strange or wacky we may seem to others, no matter how fat, thin, tall or short, plain or beautiful, whole or damaged, or anything in between, his ‘death to normalcy’ quote has become our mantra and him our inspiration to conquer the world one Random Act 0f Kindness at a time."

Misha's mother spoke to Diane Broncaccio from The Recorder about Misha's PCA win:

"His fans are dedicated voters," Collins' mother, Rebecca Tippens said, "but this award was on national TV — it is kinda a big deal," she said. "He IS a good actor and a goodly man … Of course, my subjective opinion may be a bit biased".

I agree with Misha's mother in that it is a big deal. From researching Misha Collins I have learnt that he is truly one of a kind. He is mischievous & hilarious, plus kind and caring like a true angel. Perhaps my question should have been, not 'Who is Misha Collins?' but 'How could you not love Misha Collins?'

On behalf on the fans I would like to thank Misha Collins for all the good and creativity that he inspires.

Misha Collins

Thank you for reading. Remember to be kind to others and to say 'A Death to Normalcy!"

Special thanks to Sandy - @SandraSPN for your research and help with this post.

Thank you all the minions that commented.