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HOLLYWOOD -- Jason Biggs is "the pie guy," the young American actor whose dubious claim to fame is his on-screen sexual adventure with his mom's baked goods.

Surprisingly, the 23-year-old Biggs is not embarrassed by his connection to American Pie. Nor did the fear of stereotyping as a virginal doofus stop him from signing on for the sequel American Pie 2, which is set for release on Friday.

"No, no, no," Biggs tells The Sun when asked if he's hung up on his public image. "It's flattering and it's great and I feel very lucky and it's very special and it's cool," Biggs says without a flinch. "I believe that American Pie and American Pie 2 is some of the best work I've ever done, if not 'the' best work, especially in the sequel." The fellow seems sincere.

In the sequel, Biggs' klutz scene occurs when he mistakes a tube of glue for lubricant when masturbating. His hand gets stuck to his penis, escalating the incident into a public scandal.

"I absolutely thrive on self-deprecating humour and physical comedy," Biggs says. "I'll be honest, when I opened the first script, I was so excited by the pie scene. I said, 'This is great. I'm going to be this guy. No one else is and no one else has done something like this.' I love that. It's selfish but I love it.

"When I read the second script, I was going, 'What are they going to have me doing this time?' There was some great stuff to do. I hope I did it justice. They let me go in there and do anything. They gave me some freedom and some wonderful direction and I had a lot of fun doing it. I'm not embarrassed at all!"

Biggs, who was born May 12, 1978, in Pompton Plains, N.J., is the son of Gary Biggs, the manager of a shipping firm, and Angela Biggs, a nurse. He started his career as a five-year-old kid in commercials. By 1991, he was a 13-year-old making his TV debut in the doomed sitcom Drexell's Class.

Soon after, Biggs made his Broadway stage debut with Judd Hirsch in Conversations With My Father, and that prestigious turn led to a season's stint on the soap As The World Turns, with Biggs as "rebellious" Pete Wendall. In 1997, he was in another short-lived TV series, Camp Stories. Which brings us to American Pie, the gross-out comedy that hit big in 1999 and made him a movie star, at least among teens.

"American Pie for me was so special and it opened up so many doors for me," Biggs says. "When the movie first came out, of course, I was passed every teen script, every goofy character. But I think it's a natural progression for me, as I get older and as I establish myself more in the industry, that I show, hopefully, that I can do other things.

"I'm already starting to feel that I'm no longer pigeon-holed in that (his teen doofus image) and that I'll have a lot more opportunities to do other things.

"I like to think that part of that is talent and that people can see that I can do a lot more and that I'm not the character. It's been two years since American Pie, two years filled with meetings and auditions and other films where I've shown I'm not just 'the pie guy.' "

The other films include roles in Boys And Girls, Loser and Saving Silverman, none of which hit with the box-office oomph of American Pie. But Biggs is counting on another title, Prozac Nation, to push his envelope of credibility.

"It's a smaller, independent film," he says of the project, which is based on the book by Elizabeth Wurtzel. "It's a dramatic movie. It's a dramatic role for me, which is really cool.

"Hopefully, that will open up a whole new world of opportunity for me and open up some new doors for me in the dramatic world. But I'll keep auditioning anyway, regardless."

The pie guy Jason Biggs has ambition.

Jason Biggs proud of American Pie films