Jacob Vargas(I)
- Actor
- Producer
Jacob Vargas began his acting career when he was discovered
breakdancing in a schoolyard at age 12. His introduction to acting came
with a bit part as a breakdancer on the hit TV show Diff'rent Strokes (1978). In 1995 he
won the very first ALMA Award (for Emerging Artist of the Year) for his
work in both Allison Anders' My Crazy Life (1993) and Gregory Nava's My Family/Mi familia (1995). He later starred
in films such as Selena (1997), Get Shorty (1995), American Me (1992), Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997) and the cult
favorite Next Friday (2000) as Ice Cube's nemesis, Joker. He later shined as
Tijuana cop Manolo, 'Benicio del Toro''s partner in Steven Soderbergh's Academy Award-
winning film Traffic (2000), which earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award and
another ALMA Award. He then made us laugh as Sammy the chef in
John Moore's Flight of the Phoenix (2004) and brought depth to Marine sniper Cortez in Academy
Award-winning director Sam Mendes' war drama Jarhead (2005). In 2006 he starred
as a straight-arrow DEA agent opposite Laurence Fishburne and 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 in Emilio Estevez's historical drama Bobby (2006) and played a
psychologically tortured drone pilot in Alex Rivera's sci-fi political love
story _Sleep Dealer, The (2006)_. Not satisfied with just being labeled as an actor, he
has also been focusing his talents on writing and producing through his
production company, Third Son Productions. In 2001 he executive
produced and starred in the independent film Road Dogz (2002). He also
co-produced and starred in the stage play "Latinologues", which ran on
Broadway in 2005 and is available on DVD. Through Third Son
Productions, he is currently developing several feature film and
television projects.