Name	Rick Najera
Height
Naionality	Amercain
Date of Birth
Place of Birth	USA
Famous for

Rick Najera is a gifted artist, whose creativity and dedication has led him to a life of giving back to others through his celebrated works. As an entertainer, entrepreneur, mentor, author and award-winning actor-writer-director-producer with credits in film, television, theatre and Broadway, Najera is undeniably one of the most sought after comedic talents in the industry. Honored twice by Hispanic Business Magazine as ‘100 Most Influential Latinos in America’, Najera is also one of the most powerful voices in the Latino world today.

“Poet and producer, actor and comedian, award-winning TV writer, denizen of the Latin quarter, Hollywood Hills and Great White Way, Rick Najera is the embodiment of diversity.” – Writers Guild of America

With an extensive range of talent, Najera has enjoyed working in many forms of entertainment, whether writing for television or film to theatrical stage and performance. Most recently, Najera penned the holiday feature film Nothing like the Holidaysstarring Debra Messing, Alfred Molina, John Leguizamo and Freddy Rodriguez. His writing/acting credits also include the critically acclaimed award-winning stage comedies, LATINOLOGUES™ (Broadway) which celebrates its 15th year of performance this year, Sweet 15 Quinceañera interactivemusicalandDADDY DIARIES, a new one-man show. He has also written for groundbreaking television comedies such as MAD TV and In Living Color.

As one of the only three Latinos in history to write and star in his own show on Broadway, Najera made his Broadway debut in 2005 with his self-written and created, award-winning sketch comedy show, LATINOLOGUES™. The show triumphed on Broadway at the historic Helen Hayes Theatre on W. 44th Street for a four-month run (137 performances with an extension), a historical achievement for a Latino-oriented show. Najera’s show on Broadway was directed by comedy legend, Cheech Marin and paved the way for others shows to follow such as the Tony-award-winning musical, In the Heights. While on Broadway, Najera joined Broadway’s brightest, most influential and well-loved personalities when his caricature was placed on Sardi’s exclusive Wall of Fame in midtown Manhattan.

Nearly 100 different guest actors have performed in LATINOLOGUES throughout its 15 years of performances and touring the U.S., making it the longest running and only showcase in America for Latinos of its kind. International celebrities and well-known comedians and actors seek out Najera to perform in his show, such as Eugenio Derbez, Jamie Camile, Odalys Garcia, Fernando Carrillo, Cynthia Klitbo as well as those from the U.S. (Christian de la Fuente, Mario Lopez, Erik Estrada). It’s his use of both worlds, Spanish-dominant and English-dominant that has made him one of the most sought after, innovative Latino artists of his time.

Najera’s latest comedic stage play, “Sweet 15 – Quinceañera is already another theatrical success with standing ovations and sold out houses. A full production of this play recently made its world premier at San Diego REPertory Theatre. “I love theater because I learn about a national audience better than any Nielsen report,” says Najera. He will also perform his latest comedic creation, DADDY DIARIES, a Latino-style fatherhood comedy at San Diego REPertory Theatre, The Latino Cultural Center and The Rialto Theatre in Atlanta, GA.

As a director, and for the fifth consecutive year, Najera will direct CBS’ Multicultural Sketch Comedy Talent Showcase, where he mentors and directs select comedic talent and presents one of the important showcases in the industry, seen by hundreds of casting agents and industry professionals. Najera has also directed his Latinologues comedy showcase for the last 15 years. Najera created, wrote and starred in his own sketch comedy show, BBQ Bill, which was featured on CBS’s Innertube, one of the first online comedies for a major network at the time.

On the corporate entertainment side, Najera has been able to bring his savvy business sense to entertainment, creating vibrant, culturally aware and popular programming to television and to the web. Most recently, as Content Strategist and Senior Vice President for internet-based Latin entertainment and social network, Movido.tv Najera developed, wrote and produced 23 webisode episodes for European hit Camera Café with David Salzman of MAD TV. Additionally, at LATV Networks, a national bilingual television network, Najera rose from Director of Programming to Vice President of Development, and was responsible for creating new original content. In the past nearly three years at LATV networks, he created, developed and executive produced four new cutting edge comedies ‘L.A.T.N. (Latino Ahora Today Now) ‘The Homies Hip-Hop Show’ (18 episodes), ‘Ceasar and Chuy’(co-creator), ( 26 episodes) and Mas Comedy. L.A.T.N. is a half hour sketch comedy news program hosted by Najera himself, while ‘The Homies Hip-Hop Show’ is a half-hour sketch comedy and hip-hop show using the internationally popular two-inch ‘Homies’ figurines, and was the first nationally syndicated Latino stop-motion animation series on LATV. ‘Ceasar and Chuy’ is a half-hour series based on two animated characters that provide comedy relief to a host of today’s popular videos, with Najera playing the voice of ‘Chuy’. Mas Comedy is a half-hour compilation of Latino stand-up comedians and entertaining comedy sketches. Najera lends writing and vocal talents to the series and has led efforts in creating a new genre for this network. During his term, LATV has grown to 26 markets as well as Puerto Rico. Najera brought original animation and stop motion as well as comedy and political satire for the first time to that network.

As a professional Writers Guild of America (WGA) scribe, Najera has been nominated for two WGA awards for Best Writing for a Comedy/Variety Television Series for his writing on Fox’s MAD TV. Najera has written four pilots for the major industry networks and numerous animated pilots and series for Disney, Televisa, CBS, LATV, Mio.TV, KartoonTV.com and Nuyorican Productions.

Najera has authored numerous plays including, Latin’s Anonymous, Peculiar People, A Quiet Love, The Pain of the Macho, Latinologues™, Sweet 15 - Quinceañera and most recently DADDY DIARIES. Three of his playsare compiled into his book, ‘Pain of the Macho’ which is required reading in several universities.

Rick Najera has also been involved in many charitable organizations giving back to the community: collecting toys for children for Latino Family Institute, hosting the San Diego Teen Producers Project Fundraiser, performing at Latino Family Book Fair, speaking at colleges, elementary schools, health care clinics and mentoring kids of all ages for the last 20 years. Najera is a true advocate for education, reading, writing and the arts.