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Early life

Vargas was born in Michoacán, and raised in Pacoima, Los Angeles. He was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family.¹ He attended high school at San Fernando High School in San Fernando, California.

Career

Vargas has been a working actor for over thirty years.

In 1992, Vargas appeared in American Me. In 1995, Vargas won the very first ALMA Award (for Emerging Artist of the Year) for his work in both Allison Anders' Mi Vida Loca, and Gregory Nava's My Family. In 1995, Vargas would appear in Get Shorty. In 1997, Vargas appeared in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion. In 1999, Vargas became the voice of Max Steel.²

In 2000, Vargas played Benicio del Toro's partner Manolo in director Steven Soderbergh's drug trafficking pic Traffic, which earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award and another ALMA Award. The same year he also played the Joker from the Joker Brothers in the Next Friday. He played A.B. Quintanilla, the brother of the late Tejano singer Selena in the biopic film of the same name. In 2002, Vargas would play Caesar Chavez in FX Network's film RFK. In 2004, Vargas played Sammy the chef in John Moore's Flight of the Phoenix.

In 2005, Vargas co-starred with Paul Walker and Laurence Fishburne in The Death and Life of Bobby Z.³ and also played Marine sniper Cortez in Sam Mendes' war drama Jarhead. In 2006, Vargas played a politically charged busboy in Emilio Estevez's historical drama Bobby. In 2010, Vargas played Ramirez, a building security officer, in Devil. 2011, Vargas played the father of Water Enrique Murciano and Power Nicholas Gonzalez in this true story.⁴

From 2013 to 2014, Vargas played Montez on two seasons of Sons of Anarchy and six episodes of Mayans M.C.

In 2014, Vargas played Richard Chavez opposite Michael Peña in the biopic Cesar Chavez directed by Diego Luna.

In 2015, Vargas played Edison "Elvis" Peña in the film The 33, It is the true story of the 33 Chilean miners that were trapped for 69 days.

In 2016, Vargas reoccurred as Domingo Colon in the Netflix series Luke Cage. In 2016, Vargas also reoccurred in Colony, Amazon Studio's Hand of God and he co-stars in Hulu's Crushed.⁵ In 2019, Vargas co-starred in Max Carlson's Princess of the Row opposite Martin Sheen and Ana Ortiz. He also co-starred in Peel.⁶

From 2019 to 2020, Vargas was a regular on the Netflix series Mr. Iglesias.⁷⁸

In 2020, Jacob Vargas and Justina Machado were Masters of Ceremonies at the National Hispanic Media Coalition Impact Awards.⁹

Personal life

He is married to Sylvia Arzate. They have two daughters, Rosa, born in 2004 and Victoria, born in 2011.¹⁰ Vargas has four brothers and one sister.

Filmography

Film

Television

Audio books

External links

• Jacob Vargas at IMDb

References

1. Ocana, Damarys (2010-09-13). ".Jacob Vargas from 'Devil': "The devil manifests itself in many ways, like SB 1070". Latina. Retrieved 2010-01-07. I grew up Catholic so my parents always instilled fear of the Devil in us (and la chancla). http://www.latina.com/entertainment/movies/jacob-vargas-devil-devil-manifests-itself-many-ways-sb-1070 ↩

2. Bartney, Rashonda (Oct 19, 1999). "Kids' WB! ordering Sony 'Steel' skein for Jan. bow". variety.com. Retrieved November 17, 2021. https://variety.com/1999/tv/news/kids-wb-ordering-sony-steel-skein-for-jan-bow-1117756829/ ↩

3. Chang, Justin (October 26, 2005). "Jacob Vargas". variety.com. ↩

4. Graser, Marc (October 8, 2011). "'Water & Power' flows to screen". Retrieved November 17, 2021. https://variety.com/2011/film/news/water-power-flows-to-screen-1118044148/ ↩

5. Andreeva, Nellie (February 9, 2021). "Colm Feore, Alex Kingston & Jacob Vargas Cast In Hulu Comedy Pilot 'Crushed'". Deadline. Retrieved November 16, 2021. https://deadline.com/2016/02/colm-feore-alex-kingston-jacob-vargas-hulu-comedy-crushed-1201698952/ ↩

6. Welk, Brian (April 29, 2019). "Emile Hirsch Has Red Hair and a Heart of Gold in 'Peel' Trailer (Exclusive Video)". thewrap.com. Retrieved November 18, 2021. https://www.thewrap.com/emile-hirsch-has-red-hair-and-a-heart-of-gold-in-peel-trailer-exclusive-video/ ↩

7. Kroll, Justin (March 16, 2021). "Jacob Vargas joins Steven Soderbergh's next film 'KIMI' at New Line". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved November 16, 2021. https://deadline.com/2021/03/jacob-vargas-steven-soderberghs-kimi-new-line-1234715774/ ↩

8. Otterson, Joe (August 8, 2019). "'Mr. Iglesias' Renewed for Season 2 at Netflix". variety.com. Retrieved November 17, 2021. https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/mr-iglesias-renewed-season-2-netflix-1203296770/ ↩

9. "2020 NHMC IMPACT AWARDS GALA, LA". Average Socialite. 28 February 2020. Retrieved 2021-08-04. https://www.averagesocialite.com/la-events/2020/2/28/2020-nhmc-impact-awards-gala-la ↩

10. Moonlight - Jacob Vargas Archived 2010-03-17 at the Wayback Machine http://www.moonlight-tv.de/cast/jacob.html ↩

11. "Lots more actors join Shayamalan and Dowdles' DEVIL". Fangoria. Archived from the original on 2009-10-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20091018131310/http://www.fangoria.com/home/news/9-film-news/4322-lots-more-actors-join-shayamalan-and-dowdles-devil.html ↩