Raoul Trujillo

Raoul Trujillo
Trujillo in 2019
Born	Raoul Max Trujillo (1955-05-08) May 8, 1955 New Mexico, U.S.
Occupations	Actor, dancer, choreographer, theatre director
Years active	1977–present

Raoul Max Trujillo (born May 8, 1955) is an American actor, dancer, choreographer and theatre director. A former soloist with the Nikolais Dance Theatre,^[1] he is the original choreographer and co-director for the American Indian Dance Theatre.^[2][3] His career spans more than 45 years in film, television and theatre. He has also hosted a series of dancing programs, and is a Critics' Choice Award nominee.

Trujillo is best known for playing Zero Wolf, a ruthless Mayan slave catcher and the main antagonist of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto (2006), and for playing the Iroquois chief Kiotsaeton in the film Black Robe. He has appeared in numerous high-profile and acclaimed films, including The New World, Cowboys and Aliens, Riddick, Blood Father, Sicario, and its sequel Sicario: Day of the Soldado. He also starred in dozens of television programs in both supporting and starring roles, including True Blood, Lost Girl, Da Vinci's Demons, Salem, The Blacklist, and Jamestown.^[4] He most recently starred on Mayans M.C. as Che "Taza" Romero.^[5][6]

Early life

Raoul Trujillo was born on May 8, 1955^[7] in New Mexico. He is a mixed blood descendant of Mexican, Tlaxcalan (Nahuatl), Ute, Apache, Comanche, Pueblo, French, and Spanish (including Sephardic Jew and Andalusian Moor).

Career

He started work in the theatre as a scenic painter and landed his first job in 1977 as an actor/dancer in a production of Equus. He began dancing in Los Angeles in 1978 at the University of Southern California and saw his first modern dance and ballet productions; Pilobolus, Martha Graham and Rudolf Nureyev. The next two years, he trained extensively with the Toronto Dance Theatre and Nikolais/Louis Dance Lab in New York City on scholarships. He was asked to join Nikolais Dance Theatre under the direction of the master Alwin Nikolais, who became his mentor and he began touring the world. He also learned scenic, costume and lighting design during this time from 1980 to 1987. After leaving the company, he began his solo work as dancer and choreographer and commenced his journey into shamanic ceremonials and incorporating native myths and legends in his work.

After the first decade of performing as a dancer, Trujillo became the choreographer and co-director for the American Indian Dance Theatre, the first professional native dance company incorporating traditional dance with contemporary retelling of myths and legends. He choreographed "The Shaman's Journey" for the Asia Society in New York, which was adapted into a short film for PBS on Alive from Off Center. He went on to join creative partners Alejandro Roncerria and René Highway in Toronto. This work resulted in creating successful theatre pieces for Native Earth Performing Arts. His work with Roncerria continued and he helped establish the Aboriginal Dance Project at the Banff Centre to further train Indigenous dancers from all over the world. In 2002, he received the CANCOM Ross Charles award in Canada to attend the Banff Center's screenwriters workshop for aboriginal storytellers.

Trujillo began his screen acting career in 1988 in Canada, and currently holds over 107 film and television credits. He choreographed the dances, ceremonies and rituals for Terrence Malick's The New World, as well as acting in the role of Tomocomo.

Filmography

As himself

References

External links

• Raoul Trujillo at IMDb