John Ortiz

John Ortiz is an award-winning actor who honed his craft on the theatrical stage of New York. He won the Obie Award for Best Actor in the off-Broadway production of References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for his performance in the indie film Jack Goes Boating. Ortiz is equally at home on stage, in feature films and in television.

Ortiz is the co-founder, along with acclaimed actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, of Labyrinth Theater Company, where he has produced and performed in many productions, including The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, directed by Hoffman, Jesus Hopped the "A" Train, for which he was awarded a Drama Desk nomination, Guinea Pig Solo and Jack Goes Boating at The Public Theater. Most recently he played the title role in Othello opposite Hoffman and directed by Peter Sellars. This production premiered in Vienna and toured the world. Other New York theater credits include the Broadway production of Anna in the Tropics and The Skin of Our Teeth, with John Goodman at The Public Theater, Cloud Tectonics at Playwrights Horizons, The Persians and The Merchant of Venice, both directed by Sellars and performed in Paris, London, Berlin and Edinburgh, among others.

Regionally, Ortiz has performed at the Mark Taper Forum, Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, Arena Stage, Yale Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. He can be seen in the film version of Jack Goes Boating, opposite Amy Ryan, which he not only starred in, but also produced along with Hoffman. Other credits are Michael Mann's Public Enemies, opposite Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, and Pride and Glory, with Edward Norton and Colin Farrell. He appeared in Ridley Scott's American Gangster, with Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington; 20th Century Fox's AVPR: Alien vs Predator: Requiem; Michael Mann's Miami Vice, opposite Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx; the biopic El Cantante, with Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony; Steven Spielberg's Amistad; Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way, opposite Al Pacino and Sean Penn; Narc, opposite Jason Patric and Ray Liotta; Ron Howard's Ransom; Riot; Side Streets; Sgt. Bilko; Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls; The Opportunists; and The Last Marshal.

On television, Ortiz was a series regular on CBS' Clubhouse, ABC's The Job, with Denis Leary, and FOX's Lush Life. He also starred in the HBO pilot Hope Against Hope, which was written and directed by J.J. Abrams. He starred opposite Dustin Hoffman in HBO's short-lived series Luck, then returned to the big screen with the Oscar®-nominated film Silver Linings Playbook. He just wrapped shooting the 20th Century Fox's, Rake, where he plays Greg Kinnear's best friend, and returned to Brooklyn to finish shooting Animal Rescue, opposite Tom Hardy.

Universal Pictures