John Ortiz Biography

Fast Facts

• In 1992, cofounded Latino Actors Base in response to the Broadway debut of Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden—a play set in South America that had no Latino actors in its cast; the group's name was later changed to LAByrinth Theater Company when it expanded to include non-Latino members
• Made Broadway debut in Nilo Cruz's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Anna in the Tropics in 2003
• Won an OBIE Award for References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot and received Drama Desk nominations for Jack Goes Boating and Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train
• Played Othello opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman as Iago and Jessica Chastain as Desdemona in an off-Broadway production of Othello in 2009