Wilmer Calderon
Quick Facts
Biography
Wilmer Calderon (born May 8, 1975) is a Puerto Rican-born American actor of film and television. He is best known for his role as Diego in the Amazon Prime television series Borderline, Detective Daniel Arias in the police drama series Bosch and as Ricky in the FX drama series The Shield.
Early life
Although Wilmer was born in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico he left his native country at just 2 years old to travel with his parents to Brandon, Florida. His parents taught him Spanish at home, while at the same time, he learned English by watching episodes of Sesame Street.
At the age of 5 he started playing on a baseball team, with which he toured Florida playing the league in his category for a year. At the same time, he was very concerned about his studies and was combining both. When he reached the senior level, he set the season record on stolen bases. He continued studies at Marshall University, where he began to realize his fondness for acting.
Career
Wilmer debuted in 1995 with the crime drama film Dead Man Walking, playing the role of Angelo. His work was liked very much by several television producers, who contacted him to start working on the small screen, his first work being The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo in 1996, where he gave life to Kevin Crossland in a two-part episode called "Hot Seats: Part 1 and Part 2".
He appeared as Ricky in the FX drama television series The Shield and he appeared in television shows such as The Bold and the Beautiful, ER, Pacific Blue and NYPD Blue.
Calderon appeared as Estrada in the 2006 drama film Annapolis, featuring James Franco and Tyrese Gibson.
For several years, he only worked on television, with the exception of the 2002 short Hold On. As early as 2005, and turning 10 years since his acting debut, he returns to the cinema with Venice Underground.
After going unnoticed during the following years, he arrived in playing the role of Tash in Fast & Furious in 2009, featuring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. This reinforced his acting career, managing to get hold of small roles in renowned television series such as Castle, Grey's Anatomy and The Mentalist.
Personal life
He speaks in English and Spanish. His mentor and who has helped him throughout his artistic career, is the well-known actor and producer, Benicio del Toro.