Overview (3)

Mini Bio (1)

Award-winning actor Esai Morales is a graduate of New York's High School for the Performing Arts. He was born in Brooklyn, to Puerto Rican parents, and began his acting career on the stage, first appearing in El Hermano at the Ensemble Theatre Studio and at New York's Shakespeare Festival In The Park in The Tempest. He had his feature film debut in Bad Boys and his breakthrough role as Bob Morales in La Bamba made him a star, contributing to making the film the most commercially successful Latino-themed Rock biopic of all time.



In 1997 Esai Morales co-founded the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, created to advance the presence of Latinos in the media, telecommunications and entertainment industries. The NHFA has provided scholarships to hundreds of Hispanic students in excess of 1 million dollars. Theater performances include Oscar Wilde's Salome with Al Pacino (Broadway) Joe Papp's production of The Tempest with Raul Julia (New York's Shakespeare in the Park Festival) Tamer of Horses (Los Angeles Theater Center) The Exonerated, directed by Bob Balaban and his musical theater debut on The Mambo Kings. Film credits include Bad Boys, La Bamba, Rapa Nui, Mi Familia, Fast Food Nation, Paid in Full, The Line, Atlas Shrugged: Part II, Jarhead II: Field of Fire, The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca and Gun Hill Road a film he starred and executive produced. The film was a grand Jury Nominee at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011. Television credits comprise the Emmy award-winning series NYPD BLUE (ABC) Resurrection Blvd (Showtime) American Family (PBS) Miami Vice (NBC) Fame (NBC) Law and Order: SVU (NBC) The Burning Season: The Chico Mendes Story (HBO) Vanished (FOX) Burn Notice (USA) Jericho (CBS) Caprica (Syfy) Fairly Legal (USA) Criminal Minds (CBS) Major Crimes (TNT) and Saving Westbrook High. Morales plays the role of President of The United States on The Brink, HBO's dark comedy about a geopolitical crisis.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jasmin Espada

Spouse (1)

Elvimar Silva (20 May 2010 - present) ( 1 child)

Trivia (10)



Is co-founder, with Sônia Braga and Jimmy Smits , of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts.

Spoke only Spanish until age 5.



Studied at Manhattan's High School for the Performing Arts.





He first became interested in an acting career at age 12 when he saw Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon (1975).

Esai's Puerto Rican parents divorced when he was a baby.



As a child, Esai was so concerned about his mother's smoking that he hid her cigarettes.



His first name frequently appears in crossword puzzles, since it is rare to find an English four-letter word that is 75% vowels, and especially rare for such a word to end in a vowel.



Participated in the 2011 National Record-A-Thon by recording children's book titles for RFB&D (Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic)'s audiobook library. [March 2011]



He is the fourth actor to play the DC Comics character Slade Wilson/Deathstroke in a live-action adaptation after Michael Hogan, Manu Bennett and Joe Manganiello.



Personal Quotes (38)

Being an actor you have a lot of expenses.



I remember doing 'La Bamba' and thinking, 'Do you really think that Latinos will be accepted in mainstream?' and I said, 'Someday I hope so, but there is no guarantee.'



Well, actually yes, in 1988. There was a warrant for me because my assistant hadn't paid a ticket of mine.



I believe if people understood each other more, if people took the time and realize it's not 'all about me' and I'm on a big planet with a lot of other people and concerns, maybe we can learn how to get along with each other.



Shows like 'Seinfeld' and 'Friends,' they have, like, one or two damn characters throughout the whole series that are minorities.



I like the Beatles. They're at the core of my musicality. And John Lennon's my spiritual father.



Anytime you do something Latino, yeah, I love the color, the spice.



My character Esteban is a guy who really didn't think he was gonna be there at this point in his life. He's in his early 30s. He's got a son. He's raising his son as a single father.



We as Americans of Latin descent are just as American as anyone else of any other descent.



I'm really, really dumb about describing wine, but I like wine that's full-bodied and dry.



I'm a very romantic person.



I love shocking people.



In order to be a lieutenant, you've got to have authority in your voice. No matter how young your face looks, you've got to let your guys know that you're in charge.



I love being irreverent. But I hate being irrelevant. I love being irreverent because at the end of the day your actions belie your intentions.



I just arrive, they hand me a script and say, do it.



I went jogging up on Mulholland. In the middle of my run I had some form of asthma attack and couldn't even walk. I couldn't get a ride one block to my house. I thought I was going to die.



I don't get paid like a person that everyone knows, but I get paid so much more in so many ways.



I always pull over for people who need a push.



If you don't look like the ruling class, bring your inhaler.



You know, I'm not making top dollar, but when you're making top dollar, there are a lot of people waiting for you to fall.



Being an American is a state of mind, and to be in a family is to feel the power of belonging, the power of your roots. Family is a tree, the strength of a tree, the roots, the leaves, the past and the present, the future, the fruits, the seeds.



I love bringing roses to a woman when she least expects it.



I think that racism has gotten more subtle, and it's not even racism anymore: it's placism. Like where you live or whether you went to community college or Harvard, and it exists within the race.



When you have a little 10-month-old who is climbing up your leg because you are their mountain - there's no nobler reason to get out of bed every day. There's no better reason to live, to make sure you provide as much guidance and as much room for that child to thrive.



I am tired of our characters being so incomplete. When do we ever save the day in a film? When does a Latino actor get to be the hero?



We hear a lot in this country about family, and 'American Family' just shows us a portrait we haven't seen as much of yet. 'American Family' lets us know that being American isn't about the color of your hair or eyes or skin: it's really a state of mind.



All I would say to people who doubt 'Caprica' is: Everything good starts slow.



Frankie is my baby. He is the sweetest dog in the world. Frankie is like the son I never had. He keeps me healthy; I walk and run him. I always feel that I need to spend more time with him and give him more attention. I find myself unloading my emotions on him.



I think the legacy left behind by 'Battlestar' speaks for itself. I thought that these avid fans, most of whom were skeptical at first... to turn them into a fan of 'Caprica' as well is a daunting task, a big challenge.



It's people politics, people dynamics that make a show really good, whether it's 'Desperate Housewives' or 'Lost' or 'The Sopranos.' It's the people we've grown to love or otherwise.



I don't want to be the 'spice' added to a show. I'm not a condiment!



How often do you get a movie where the coolest character has your own real last name? I played Bob Morales as a cross between my own father - the passion, the fury - and the real Bob Morales. I loved that movie. People, kids always come up to me and tell me how much they still love 'La Bamba.'



We understand 'Roots,' and that experience was mind-boggling, and it changed the way society viewed race relations. It was incredibly important. With 'Roots,' I was just as proud as anybody else that people of color were getting their stories told.



My mother taught me when you go someplace, you leave it better than you found it.



Do I have to see movies and television about the English throne or the Holocaust every year? There are multiple multi-million dollar movies with the same backdrop. But our Holocaust - meaning Latino - aren't ever told.



I see myself being a father, hopefully a husband, but I'm very gun-shy. The older I get, the further the goalpost.



In New York, just standing still on the sidewalk is a weird feeling. You have this incessant need to do things. Los Angeles is about kicking back, relaxing, your inner child, peace.



I'll never lose the sense of being an underdog.

