Benjamin Bratt

Benjamin Bratt
Bratt in 2022
Born	(1963-12-16) December 16, 1963 (age 60)
Education	University of California, Santa Barbara (BFA) American Conservatory Theater
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1987–present
Spouse	Talisa Soto ​ (m. 2002)​
Children	2

Benjamin Bratt (born December 16, 1963) is an American film and television actor. He is most known for playing Paco Aguilar in Blood In, Blood Out. He has also had supporting film roles in the 1990s in Demolition Man (1993), Clear and Present Danger (1994), and The River Wild (1994). From 1995 to 1999, he starred as New York City Police Department (NYPD) Detective Reynaldo Curtis on the NBC drama series Law & Order.

In the 2000s, Bratt appeared in Miss Congeniality (2000), Traffic (2000), Piñero (2001), Catwoman (2004), and Trucker (2008), Despicable Me 2 (2013), Snitch (2013), Coco (2017), among other films. On television, Bratt has portrayed Dr. Jake Reilly on ABC's Private Practice (2011–2013), Steve Navarro on 24: Live Another Day (2014), and Jahil Rivera on Star (2016–2018). He has also done voice acting in animated feature films.

Bratt has received four American Latino Media Arts Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

Early life[edit]

Bratt was born on December 16, 1963,^[1] the third of five children of Eldy (née Banda), a nurse and political activist, and Peter Bratt Sr., a sheet metal worker.^[2] His mother was born in Lima, Peru, and is of Quechua descent. She moved to the United States with her family at age 14.^[3] His father is American, and his paternal grandfather, George, was a Broadway actor.^[4]

An activist for Native American rights, his mother took Bratt (age 6) and her other children to participate in the 1969 Native American occupation of Alcatraz. Led by young people from San Francisco, it raised national awareness of issues facing Native Americans, and attracted participants from across the country.^[5] Bratt attended Lowell High School in San Francisco, where he was a member of the Lowell Forensic Society. Bratt earned a B.F.A. at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1986, where he joined the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.^[6] Enrolled in the M.F.A. program at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, he left before receiving his degree in order to star in the 1987 television film Juarez.^[5]

Career[edit]

Early work[edit]

He started his professional acting career at the Utah Shakespearean Festival, where he starred in the television film Juarez. This received much critical acclaim, and he landed a supporting role in the television film Police Story: Gladiator School. Also, he played his first film role as Esteban in Lovers, Partners & Spies, which did not perform well at the box office. Bratt worked extensively in television, with roles in the Knightwatch and Nasty Boys series. In 1989, he starred in the film Nasty Boys, based on the television series.

Hollywood breakthrough and success[edit]

After several low-budget films and television films, including One Good Cop and Shadowhunter, in 1993, Bratt appeared in two Hollywood films. He portrayed a gang member turned LAPD officer named Paco Aguilar in Blood In, Blood Out, and Officer Alfredo Garcia from the year 2032 in Demolition Man.

The following year, he played supporting roles in the popular films of The River Wild, Clear and Present Danger, and James A. Michener's Texas.

Returning to television, he played Detective Reynaldo Curtis in the popular series Law & Order replacing Chris Noth, which gained him international recognition. He reprised the role in Homicide: Life on the Street and Exiled: A Law & Order Movie. For his role, he received three American Latino Media Arts Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

In 1999, Bratt decided to leave Law & Order. "I've felt like it was time to get back home to my family," Bratt said. "How do you walk away from the best job in the world and a group of people that you've grown to love? It's not easy, and it was an extremely difficult decision that I had to make."^[7][8] On May 26, 1999, Bratt's final episode was aired. In 2009, Bratt returned as the now-retired Curtis on Law & Order, where he was reunited with his former boss, Lt. Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson), in the episode that aired on December 11, 2009. He returned to his film career that same year.

Later work[edit]

In 2000, Bratt co-starred with Madonna and Rupert Everett in The Next Best Thing. That same year, he played opposite Sandra Bullock in the romantic comedy Miss Congeniality and had a small role in the ensemble work Traffic, which included Benicio del Toro, Michael Douglas, Don Cheadle and Catherine Zeta-Jones. In 2004, the actor co-starred in Catwoman with Halle Berry and Sharon Stone. Bratt often portrays Hispanic characters, especially in his later work. Bratt said, "I've played 'Latin-looking spiv, third from the right so many times I can't count." In 2001, he starred in the biopic film Piñero, for which he received an American Latino Media Arts Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture. He played Puerto Rican actor and poet Miguel Piñero. Piñero was bisexual and when talking about Bratt having to portray his bisexuality, Bratt stated that this was "certainly something I wasn't afraid of." He went on to say, "Whether you're talking about Miguel's sexuality or his time spent in jail or his petty crime or his drug addiction, each one of those things is a component that makes up the entirety of the man."^[9] In 2009, Bratt performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. That year also saw him starred in and produced the film La Mission, directed by his brother, Peter Bratt. His later popular films include The Woodsman, Thumbsucker, The Great Raid, Trucker, Snitch, Ride Along 2, The Infiltrator, and Doctor Strange.

Bratt has appeared in several television shows since 2000, including starring as William Banks in The Cleaner, Dr. Jake Reilly in Private Practice, and Jahil Rivera on Star. He also appeared in such notable series as Frasier, Modern Family, 24: Live Another Day, DMZ, and Poker Face.

Bratt has featured in five animated feature films, which include El Macho, the main antagonist of Despicable Me 2. He played Manny the cameraman in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and reprised his role in its sequel. Also, in 2015, he voiced Superman in Justice League: Gods and Monsters. In the 2017 film Coco, Bratt voiced its main antagonist, Ernesto de la Cruz, who was a Mexican folk legend and the idol of the film's protagonist, Miguel. Bratt sings "Remember Me", a popular song in the film that is sung by many other characters throughout and won Best Original Song at the 2018 Academy Awards, whereas the film won Best Animated Feature.

Activism and philanthropy[edit]

He has been active in the American Indian Movement and supports such causes as the American Indian College Fund.^[5]

He narrated We Shall Remain (2009), a PBS mini-series about Native Americans, and part of its American Experience.^[10]

Bratt has for years supported and served as a board member of the San Francisco Bay Area's Friendship House Association of American Indians and the Native American Health Center.^[11] Bratt also has supported area organizations such as the Tribal Athletics Program, and United Indian Nations.^[5]

In 2002, he and Priscilla López received the Rita Moreno Award for Excellence from the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA).^[12]

In 2017, he served as consulting producer for the film Dolores, which explores the life of Dolores Huerta, an American labor leader and civil rights activist. The film received critical acclaim and several awards.

In 2023, he co-executive produced Wings of Dust, a documentary about contamination of water in the Peruvian community of Espinar.

Personal life[edit]

From 1998 to 2001, Bratt dated actress Julia Roberts.^[13]

In 2002, he began dating actress and former Bond girl Talisa Soto; they married on April 13 in San Francisco. The two had met ten years earlier during a casting audition. During the filming of Piñero (2001) they began to develop a relationship. Their first child, daughter Sophia Rosalinda Bratt, was born on December 6, 2002; their second child, son Mateo Bravery Bratt, was born on October 3, 2005.^[14][15]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Television[edit]

Awards and nominations[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Benjamin Bratt on Instagram
• Benjamin Bratt at IMDb
• Benjamin Bratt at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Media related to Benjamin Bratt at Wikimedia Commons
• Quotations related to Benjamin Bratt at Wikiquote