About Me
Born to Puerto Rican parents in Brooklyn, NY, Esai Morales developed an interest in acting at a young age, and attended New York's prestigious High School for the Performing Arts.
Esai made his stage debut in El Hermano at the Ensemble Studio Theater and appeared in Joe Papp's production of The Tempest for New York's Shakespeare in the Park festival. His theater experience also includes sharing the stage with Al Pacino in Salome, and he earned a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for his performance in Tamer of Horses for the Los Angeles Theater Center. In 2002, Morales made his musical theater debut starring in the San Francisco run of The Mambo Kings.
This fall, Esai can be seen on the CBS resurrected series, "Jericho", as Major Edward Beck for a six-episode arc. In addition, Esai stars in the recently released independent film, "American Fusion." In the film, Esai stars as Jose, a Mexican denist, who falls in love with Yvonne, an Asian divorcee. What develops in the film is a passionate love between Jose and Yvonne that transcends race and culture.
Esai starred last fall as FBI agent Michael Tyner on Fox's "Vanished". His best-known television role is his portrayal of Lt. Tony Rodriguez in the Emmy Award-winning drama series "NYPD Blue". In 2002, he received an Alma Award for Best Actor in a Television Series. He also received accolades for his performances in the drama series "American Family" and "Resurrection Blvd".
In 1983, Morales made his film debut in "Bad Boys" opposite Sean Penn and went on to star in "La Bamba", which remains the most commercially successful Latino-themed motion picture to date. Esai is currently shooting "La Linea" also starring Ray Liotta, Andy Garcia, Armand Assante, and Veronica Cruz.
Other film credits include "The Burning Season" and "The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca". He can be seen in "Fast Food Nation", "The Virgin of Juarez", "American Fusion" (in select theaters) and "Kill Kill Faster Faster" (soon to be released).
Morales, along with Jimmy Smits and Sonia Braga, co-founded the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts (NHFA) in 1997. The foundation was created to advance the presence and quality of Latinos in media, telecommunications and entertainment. He is a board member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and serves on the advisory board of Women in Film (WIF), and has contributed his time and face to countless other worthy causes and organizations.
Esai currently lives in Los Angeles with his dog Frankie.
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