Jonny Cruz

Jonny Cruz (born Jonathan Willie Hernández; December 1, 1982) is an American actor, scriptwriter, producer, filmmaker and musician. He has been featured as an actor in movies like Walking Tall: Lone Justice, Infiltrators and Haunting at the Beacon. He has also appeared on television series like General Hospital, Prison Break and Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23. As producer, Jonny has run films such as Small Timers, Hold, the web series Cool Wheels and plays the guitar with his musical team Power Up in Los Angeles and Hollywood, California in the United States. He is also the voice of Lúcio in the video game Overwatch and the voice of Lucas Rivera in Need for Speed Heat. His experience in filmmaking has also covered activities as producer, director, writer, editor, SFX artist, voice artist and cinematographer.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Cruz.

Jonny Cruz
Cruz at the 2019 GalaxyCon in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Born
Jonathan Willie Hernández

(1982-12-01) December 1, 1982
El Paso, Texas, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Texas at Arlington
OccupationActor, scriptwriter, producer, filmmaker, musician
Websitewww.jonny-cruz.com

Biography

Early life

Jonny Cruz was born Jonathan Willie Hernández in El Paso, Texas on December 1, 1982 and is the son of Maritza Pagan and Orlando Hernández, younger brother of two children with his sister Sharlene. Jonny chose to use Cruz as his professional last name in honor of his Grandmother Nayda Cruz. He attended school in El Paso and studied abroad in Würzburg, Germany in early grade school. Cruz started acting and performing in his early years in the fourth grade with his first role as Brom Bones in the play Sleepy Hollow. He continued his studies and never lost the chance to keep performing at Eastwood High School and went on to study acting and filmmaking at the University of Texas at Arlington. The ability to be so completely lost in the moment and find perfection through performance and filmmaking attracted Cruz to the art form. Cruz found himself fascinated with Improv comedy performance and joined the well known Four Day Weekend Performance Team in Fort Worth. While performing, Cruz continued to shoot short videos to showcase his comedic and technical talents.[1]

Career

Cruz studied computer science, acting, filmmaking and communication media, all of which he used to understand the complex process of film making. His computer skills allowed him to work as web designer and his passion for acting always prompted him to audition for movie roles as they came. Cruz stated, “I loved to learn so, I would spend endless hours working on the computer learning editing software, visual FX programs, I felt that I could pretty much make a movie on my own from beginning to end after learning all the different aspects of movie making”.[1] So in 2005, with enough knowledge on technical and theoretical aspects of movie making, Cruz made his first incursion as writer, director and producer, besides his acting role, with Cool Wheels where he co-worked with college friends Robby Storey and Kim Matula.[2] He then went on to produce, write, act and direct Small Timers, his first feature-length film. Small Timers took six years to complete due to severe technical difficulties, and Cruz stated that completing the film was one of the hardest things he's ever had to do.[3]

In 2013, Cruz featured as Jimmy Romero in the film Infiltraitors, his third production with Sabbatical Pictures. His first and second works with this company were Exit Speed[4] and Haunting at the Beacon.[5] Infiltrators was Cruz's first lead in a feature film. Also in 2013, Cruz performed Victor in the action film Gone Missing.

Since 2016, Cruz has appeared as the voice of Lúcio in the highly popular game Overwatch, and reprised the role for Heroes of the Storm.[6]

Music

Cruz has made music for his own movies, such as Small Timers and plays the guitar and performs musical improv with his team Power Up, who with he has played shows in Los Angeles and Hollywood as well as shows at iOwest, Comedy Sportz and The Clubhouse and UCB in California.

Extra activities

Cruz teaches “Self Confidence & Improv” for famous author Neil Strauss consisting of a motivational speaking and helping people to find their best self through facing their fears, Improv being one of the tools to help gain confidence.

He also supports “A Course in Miracles”, which is a foundation for inner peace and is method of coping with fear by shifting your perspective from fear to love, parting from the statement that “fear is an illusion that we create”.[7]

Filmography

Films
Year Title Role Notes
2003 Saving Jessica Lynch Iraqi Soldier Television film
2005 Devon's Ghost: Legend of the Bloody Boy Craigh Direct-to-video
2007 Walking Tall: Lone Justice Ciro Direct-to-video
2007 Missionary Man Billy
2008 Exit Speed Eric
2009 Night Crawlers N/A Assistant Camera
2009 Hold The Man with the Green Shoes
2009 The Beacon Simón Valencia
2011 Small Timers Ricardo Also writer, producer, director, editor, special effects, casting
2013 Gone Missing Víctor
2013 Infiltrators Jimmy Romero
2014 Mission Air Ramons
2015 Self Promotion Mysterious Uber Driver Television film
2016 Amerigeddon Timmes

Shorts
Year Title Role Notes
2004 Sing for Me The Immigrant Also Writer of additional dialogue
2006 Lazer’s Night Moves Corey Luján
2007 Lion's Den N/A Cinematographer
2007 Little Boy N/A Grip
2007 Relation N/A Camera operator
2010 Cool Wheels Brent Also director, writer, producer, editor, executive producer, producer, editor, special effects, casting
2013 The Text Pervention Hotline Hot Guy

Television
Year Title Role Notes
2007 Prison Break Inmate Episode: "Fire/Water"
2009 The Closer Cruz Soto Episode: "The Life"
2010 DialStar Barnes 4 episodes
2011 Missing Peace N/A Director
2011 Supah Ninjas Domenic The Magnificent Episode: "The Magnificent"
2012 General Hospital Ramón 2 episodes
2013 CollegeHumor Originals Zayn Episode: "What U Wanna Hear"
2013 Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 James Martinez Episode: "The D..."
2013 NCIS: Los Angeles Raul Herrera/Massil Al-Hawati Episode: "Fish Out Of Water"
2013–2014 Third String Kicker Cane Wielding Assassin, Robber 2 episodes
2014 Matador[8] Performing Ricky Sandoval 10 episodes
2016 Castle Zane Cannon Episode: "Much Ado About Murder"
2016–2019 The Stinky & Dirty Show Chopper (voice) 11 episodes
2016 Poser Colt Cortez Episode: "Pilot"
2017 Hers and History Jason Episode: "Episode #1.7"
2017 The Attack Himself Episode: "All's Faire in Love and Roasts"
2019 Seis Manos Jesús (voice) 8 episodes
2021 The Casagrandes Artemio (voice) Episode: "Achy Breaky Art"

Video games
Year Title Role Notes
2012 Prototype 2 Additional Voices
2016 Hitman Jordan Cross
2016 Overwatch Lúcio Correia dos Santos[9]
2017 Heroes of the Storm Lúcio Correia dos Santos
2017 Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands El Boquita
2018 Red Dead Redemption 2 The Local Pedestrian Population
2019 Need for Speed Heat Lucas Rivera

Web Series
Year Title Role Notes
2017 Vanquished Jay Goldston Season 2, Main Cast
2018 Perception Check Sham Sham 3 episodes
2018 Roguelike Various characters 3 episodes

Music

Cruz made musical beat compilations in Small Timers. Does Musical Improv with his team Power Up, a cappella style with harmonies and beat-boxing.

Theater

Cruz played Juan Francisco “Frankie” in Charity: Part III of A Mexican Trilogy, directed by José Luis Valenzuela, starring Ofelia Medina.[10]

References
  1. Personal Interview with the artist
  2. Cool Wheels Trivia|https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2405465/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
  3. Cinemanía, mayo 2011. No. 188
  4. Exit Speed Press Kit|http://www.sabbaticalpictures.com/exitpresskit.html Archived July 31, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  5. Haunting at the Beacon review|http://fangoria.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5084:filmmakers-talk-haunting-at-the-beacon-disc-news-exclusive-pics&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=167 Archived January 11, 2019, at the Wayback Machine
  6. "Here Are the Voice Actors of the Overwatch Cast". Twinfinite. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  7. A Course in Miracles Introduction|http://acim.org/AboutACIM/index.html
  8. Bibel, Sara (April 3, 2014). "Tanc Sade, Elizabeth Pena & More Join Cast of El Rey's 'Matador'". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on April 5, 2014. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
  9. http://twinfinite.net/gallery/here-are-the-voice-actors-of-the-overwatch-cast/4
  10. Ofelia Medina protagonizara estreno mundial de “Charity: Part III of A Mexican Trilogy” en Los Angeles Theatre Center|"Archived copy". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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