Jacob Vargas

Birthday: Aug 18, 1971
Birthplace: Michoacan, Mexico

Bio: Jacob Vargas began his acting career when he was discovered breakdancingin a schoolyard at age 12. His introduction to acting came with a bitpart as a breakdancer on the hit TV show "Diff'rent Strokes" (1978). In1995 he won the very first ALMA Award (for Emerging Artist of the Year)for his work in both Allison Anders' Mi vida loca (1993) and GregoryNava's My Family… More Bio: Jacob Vargas began his acting career when he was discovered breakdancingin a schoolyard at age 12. His introduction to acting came with a bitpart as a breakdancer on the hit TV show "Diff'rent Strokes" (1978). In1995 he won the very first ALMA Award (for Emerging Artist of the Year)for his work in both Allison Anders' Mi vida loca (1993) and GregoryNava's My Family (1995). He later starred in films such as Selena (1997),Get Shorty (1995), American Me (1992), Romy and Michele's High SchoolReunion (1997) and the cult favorite Next Friday (2000) as Ice Cube'snemesis, Joker. He later shined as Tijuana cop Manolo, 'Benicio delToro''s partner in Steven Soderbergh's Academy Award- winning filmTraffic (2000), which earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award and anotherALMA Award. He then made us laugh as Sammy the chef in John Moore'sFlight of the Phoenix (2004) and brought depth to Marine sniper Cortez inAcademy Award-winning director Sam Mendes' war drama Jarhead (2005). In2006 he starred as a straight-arrow DEA agent opposite Laurence Fishburneand Paul Walker in the action drama _Death and Life of Bobby Z, The(2006)_ and joined an all-star cast as a politically charged busboy inEmilio Estevez's historical drama Bobby (2006) and played apsychologically tortured drone pilot in Alex Rivera's sci-fi politicallove story _Sleep Dealer, The (2006)_. Not satisfied with just beinglabeled as an actor, he has also been focusing his talents on writing andproducing through his production company, Third Son Productions. In 2001he executive produced and starred in the independent film Road Dogz(2000). He also co-produced and starred in the stage play "Latinologues",which ran on Broadway in 2005 and is available on DVD. Through Third SonProductions, he is currently developing several feature film andtelevision projects.