Quick Facts
Biography
Carlos Sanz is an American actor. He is best known for playing main villain Carlito in the 2006 film Crank.
Early life
Sanz grew up in Chicago and has two brothers, Steve and the actor Horatio Sanz. He and his family grew up in the North-Pulaski neighbourhood in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he studied Mathematics and Philosophy.
Film career
Sanz has worked with such notable film directors as Ron Howard, Andrew Davis and Alan Rudolf. He played mob boss Manuel Garza in the comedy Beer for My Horses, starring Toby Keith, Rodney Carrington and Willie Nelson. He can be seen in the Lifetime movie Detention, starring alongside Penelope Ann Miller. This fall Sanz played an LA detective in The Take along with John Leguizamo, Tyrese Gibson and Rosie Perez. In the 2006 hit Crank, starring Jason Statham, he played the lead character of Carlito, one of the main antagonists of the film. He can also be seen taking a comedic bent like his brother Horatio Sanz in the comedy Dishdogz where he does an homage to Harold Ramis.
His television projects include: The Shield playing Det. Carlos Zamora who goes head to head with Vic Mackey played by Michael Chiklis, Criminal Minds, 24, Close to Home, Las Vegas, and as recurring undercover cop Det. Ray Olivo on NYPD Blue.
He did a stint of two seasons on the NBC daytime drama Another World where he played the handsome, womanizing, mysterious and slightly dangerous Dr. Victor Rodriguez.
An accomplished theater artist, he has worked around the world including the Arena Stage, Washington DC, in the two person play about Georgia O'Keeffe and her much younger companion; Goodman Theater working with director Joanne Akalitis and Don Cheadle; South Coast Rep with Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Nelo Cruz; Royal Shakespeare Company in London, Thalia Theater in Hamburg and Bobigny MC93 in Paris with Peter Sellars directing The Merchant of Venice alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman; The Rubicon Theatre Co as Starbuck in The Rainmaker opposite Stephanie Zimbalist, San Diego Rep, LAByrinth NYC, Lincoln Center Salon, The Organic Theater Co. in Chicago as a company member and Latino Chicago Theater Company where he was an artistic associate.
He is also a writer, director, and photographer.