Mike Gomez: actor - Picture

Latino Leaders: The National Magazine of the Successful American Latino, June-July, 2003

ORIGINS: Parents from Zacatecas, Mexico. Mike was born and raised in Dallas. * OCCUPATION: Actor, * HIS START IN ENTERTAINMENT: "When I was very young, I performed in my sister's Mexican folkloric ballet group, and that's how I started my career as an artist." (Laughs.) Winning the first acting scholarship given to someone from an ethnic minority, he worked at the Dallas Theater Center before going to Austin to perform on a kids" TV show called Carrascolendas, PBS's first bilingual musical series on national TV in the history of the US.

* THE SWITCH TO MOVIES?: "I did a film for Universal, and that got me started in cinema, and then I started working in a lot of different films, The Border with Jack Nicholson, Born in East LA, El Norte, The Milagro Beanfield War, Heartbreak Ridge with Clint Eastwood, The Big Lebowsky with Jeff Bridges, Dance with Me with Chayanne and Denise Williams, and also doing a lot of television. From Star Trek the Next Generation to the mini-series Robert Kennedy, Latin Times, Chicago Hope, X Files, a lot of stuff." * CURRENT PROJECTS?: "I've been cast for Captain Gallardo, a Latino boss in a series called Hunter. They decided to make two productions 'Return to Justice' and 'The Out of Towners.' The wonderful thing about this series and NBC Is that they are putting a Latino in a major role. * WHOM DOES HE ADMIRE?: Two people basically, artist wise, Cesar Chavez and Ricardo Montalban. And of course my morn and my dad (Laughs.) As a matter of fact, my mother has been a great influence on me. I come from a very large family. There are 12 of us, six boys and six girls. My father died when I was very young, and my mother took charge of the whole family, She's a very strong woman and she has been my inspiration for a long time. MOTTO?: Never give up.