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Jonny Cruz
Cruz at the 2019GalaxyCon inMinneapolis, Minnesota
Born	Jonathan Willie Hernández (1982-12-01)December 1, 1982 (age 42) El Paso, Texas, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Texas at Arlington
Occupations	Actor scriptwriter producer filmmaker musician
Height	5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Website	www.jonny-cruz.com

Jonny Cruz (bornJonathan Willie Hernández; December 1, 1982) is an American actor, scriptwriter, producer, filmmaker and musician. He has been featured as an actor in movies likeWalking Tall: Lone Justice,Infiltrators andHaunting at the Beacon. He has also appeared on television series likeGeneral Hospital,Prison Break andDon't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23. As producer, Jonny has run films such asSmall Timers,Hold, the web seriesCool Wheels and plays the guitar with his musical teamPower Up in Los Angeles and Hollywood, California in the United States. He is also the voice ofLúcio in the video gameOverwatch and the voice of Lucas Rivera inNeed for Speed Heat. His experience infilmmaking has also covered activities as producer, director, writer, editor, SFX artist, voice artist and cinematographer.

Jonny Cruz was born Jonathan Willie Hernández inEl Paso, Texas, on December 1, 1982, and is the son of Maritza Pagan and Orlando Hernández, younger brother of two children with his sister Sharlene. Jonny chose to use Cruz as his professional last name in honor of his Grandmother Nayda Cruz. He attended school in El Paso and studied abroad inWürzburg,Germany, in early grade school. Cruz started acting and performing in his early years in the fourth grade with his first role asBrom Bones in the playSleepy Hollow. He continued his studies and never lost the chance to keep performing at Eastwood High School and went on to study acting and filmmaking at theUniversity of Texas at Arlington. The ability to be so completely lost in the moment and find perfection through performance and filmmaking attracted Cruz to the art form. Cruz found himself fascinated withImprov comedy performance and joined the well knownFour Day Weekend Performance Team inFort Worth. While performing, Cruz continued to shoot short videos to showcase his comedic and technical talents.^{[1][better source needed]}

Cruz studiedcomputer science, acting, filmmaking and communication media, all of which he used to understand the complex process of film making. His computer skills allowed him to work as web designer and his passion for acting always prompted him to audition for movie roles as they came. Cruz stated, “I loved to learn so, I would spend endless hours working on the computer learning editing software, visual FX programs, I felt that I could pretty much make a movie on my own from beginning to end after learning all the different aspects of movie making”.^{[1][better source needed]} So in 2005, with enough knowledge on technical and theoretical aspects of movie making, Cruz made his first incursion as writer, director and producer, besides his acting role, withCool Wheels where he co-worked with college friendsRobby Storey andKim Matula.^{[2][better source needed]} He then went on to produce, write, act and directSmall Timers, his first feature-length film.Small Timers took six years to complete due to severe technical difficulties, and Cruz stated that completing the film was one of the hardest things he's ever had to do.^[3]

In 2013, Cruz featured as Jimmy Romero in the filmInfiltraitors, his third production with Sabbatical Pictures. His first and second works with this company wereExit Speed^[4] andHaunting at the Beacon.^[5]Infiltrators was Cruz's first lead in a feature film. Also in 2013, Cruz performed Victor in the action filmGone Missing.

Since 2016, Cruz has appeared as the voice ofLúcio in the highly popular gameOverwatch, and reprised the role forHeroes of the Storm.^[6]

Cruz has made music for his own movies, such asSmall Timers and plays the guitar and performsmusical improv with his teamPower Up, who with he has played shows in Los Angeles and Hollywood as well as shows at iOwest, Comedy Sportz and The Clubhouse and UCB in California.

Cruz teaches “Self Confidence & Improv” for famous authorNeil Strauss consisting of a motivational speaking and helping people to find their best self through facing their fears, Improv being one of the tools to help gain confidence.

He also supports “A Course in Miracles”, which is a foundation for inner peace and is method of coping with fear by shifting your perspective from fear to love, parting from the statement that “fear is an illusion that we create”.^[7]

He also streams on the popular streaming platformTwitch as a side hobby. It all started on October 5, 2020 when he posted a post on Facebook where he said he is going Grandmaster in the popular FPSOverwatch and needed help from players to rank up. His first stream was on October the 6th 2pm PST, he started to level up in quickplay with viewers who tuned in to see theLúcio voice actor from their favourite game playingOverwatch. Over time he has created a loyal fanbase of viewers and friends who come regularly to his stream to chat, play games and just hang out. Now he streams each week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday where he starts off the stream with Scrims (private lobby 6 versus 6) with his viewers to warm up. Right now (September 2021), he is at 3900sr which is 100sr from his goal of going Grandmaster.^[8]

Cruz made musical beat compilations inSmall Timers. DoesMusical Improv with his teamPower Up, a cappella style with harmonies and beat-boxing.

Cruz played Juan Francisco “Frankie” inCharity: Part III of A Mexican Trilogy, directed byJosé Luis Valenzuela, starringOfelia Medina.^[11]

Wikiquote has quotations related toJonny Cruz.

• Jonny Cruz atIMDb
• Vanished atIMDb
• [1] “Haunting at the Beacon” Cast and Crew
• [2] “Haunting at the Beacon” Release memo
• [3]^{[permanent dead link]} “Small Timers” AD
• Lazer’s Night Moves atIMDb
• [4] A Course in Miracles Introduction

• 1982 births
• Living people
• American male writers
• American male film actors
• American male television actors
• American male video game actors
• American male voice actors
• Film producers from Texas
• Male actors from El Paso, Texas
• University of Texas at Arlington alumni
• 21st-century American male actors

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