Rick Gonzalez extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Rick Gonzalez
Born	June 30, 1979 (1979-06-30) (age 30) Brooklyn, New York City

Rick Gonzalez (born June 30, 1979) is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the films Coach Carter, Biker Boyz, Pulse, and Roll Bounce and in the TV show Reaper as Benji.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

Early life

Gonzalez was born in New York City of Dominican (Dominican Republic) and Puerto Rican descent. His parents met in New York City where they married. They settled down in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn where they raised Rick.¹ There, he attended elementary and junior high school. Ever since he was a young child, Rick would put on improvised "shows" for his family and participate in all of his school's plays. His teachers were instrumental in convincing Rick to apply and try out for the High School of the Performing Arts, on which Fame was based, in Manhattan. He did as suggested and was accepted. In 1997, he graduated and began to pursue a career in acting.²

Career

Gonzalez started his acting career in New York where he landed a small role in the made for television movie Thicker Than Blood (1998) as Sanchez. In 1999, he made his feature movie debut as Ricky in the movie Mambo Cafe, which was released in the year 2000. He followed that by participating in the film Prince of Central Park (2000) before heading for Los Angeles, California.²

In Hollywood, he landed a small part as a gangbanger in the 2001 film Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles. He followed that with the roles of Rudy Bonilla in The Rookie, starring Dennis Quaid and as the sex-crazed Primo in the 2003 movie Biker Boyz. In 2005, he played the role of Timo Cruz in the movie Coach Carter. Gonzalez also appeared in Twista's video Hope, which is the lead single off the Coach Carter movie soundtrack. He played the male lead in Mashonda's Back of Tha Club video; and has also starred in the video to the Obie Trice song Snitch, where he plays a member of a group who successfully pull off a bank robbery, and then snitches on them. Gonzalez was also in Red Cafe's video All Night Long which was also in the Coach Carter movie soundtrack.

Among the other movies in which Gonzalez has participated in are the 2003 comedy Old School (alongside Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell) as "Spanish", Laurel Canyon (2003) as Wyett, Subway Cafe (2004) as Vincent Young, War of the Worlds (2005) as Vincent, Roll Bounce (2005) as Naps, Pulse (2006) as Stone,First Snow (2006) as Andy Lopez,³ and Illegal Tender (2007) as Wilson DeLeon Jr.³

His TV guest appearances have been in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2000), Touched by an Angel (2001) as Ramone, ER (2001) as Jorge Escalona, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2002) as Tomas, The Shield (2002) and CSI: Miami (2006). He is currently co-starring in the CW television series Reaper as Ben Gonzalez. Gonzalez had a blog about the 2008 MLB Post Season and was nicknamed the "October Gonzo".⁴

See also

• List of famous Puerto Ricans
• Lists of people from the Dominican Republic

References

External links

• Rick Gonzalez at the Internet Movie Database
• Rick Gonzalez Website
• Dominican Times