Iglesias worked for a cell phone company in Los Angeles and in 1997 went into comedy full-time, though it resulted in his being evicted from his home and losing his car. Iglesias often references his weight in his comedy, often saying, "Oh, I'm not fat, I'm fluffy", elaborating that there were five levels of fatness, "Big", "Healthy", "Husky", "Fluffy", and "DAMN!!!" He later added a 6th level, "Oh Hell No!!" In 2000, he appeared in the sixth season of the Nickelodeonsketch comedy series All That, co-starring with Amanda Bynes and Nick Cannon. In 2007, Iglesias voiced an entire Mexican family in "Padre de Familia", a sixth season episode of the Fox TV animated comedy Family Guy. That same year, he began voicing a recurring set of identical twin characters on The Emperor's New School, a Disney animated series that he describes as his favorite voice work. Iglesias was a contestant on the fourth season of reality TV series Last Comic Standing in 2006, surviving elimination to become one of the final eight comics. He was disqualified at that point for having used a smuggled BlackBerry to communicate with family and friends, which violated the rules of the show. In 2011, Comedy Central debuted Gabriel Iglesias Presents Stand Up Revolution, a standup showcase series which Iglesias produced and hosted, running for three seasons before ending in 2014. Iglesias has hosted/co-hosted six episodes of Equals Three, and played a strip club DJ and drug dealer in the 2012 film Magic Mike. Iglesias voiced Ned and Zed in the 2013 DisneyToon Studios film, Planes. He also voiced characters in the animated filmsThe Nut Job and . Iglesias is featured in the reality series Fluffy Breaks Even, which premiered on Fuse on October 1, 2015. The show was renamed Fluffy's Food Adventures upon its third season renewal in January 2017. In 2019, he played Gabe Iglesias, in Mr. Iglesias, a Netflix original series about a teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. He made a guest appearance on WWE Backstage on FS1, to take part in a segment called promo school.
Influences and style
Iglesias’ comedy influences are Paul Rodriguez, Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams, and Bill Cosby. He prefers to do relatively clean comedy and avoids potentially controversial or divisive topics such as politics or religion in order to reach the largest possible audience.
Awards and honors
On February 10, 2012, Iglesias was presented with several awards by the city ofEl Paso, Texas, including the key to the city and the Beacon of H.O.P.E Award from the nonprofit organization Operation H.O.P.E.
Personal life
Iglesias lives in Whittier, California. He has a son Frankie, who was 20 years old in 2018, and a long-term girlfriend whose identity he does not discuss in order to protect her privacy. In The Fluffy Movie, Iglesias describes how at his heaviest, which he states was, he was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes, and with his blood sugar spiking to over 300 mg/dl regularly, was given two years to live by his doctor. He said the shock of being told he had two years to live prompted him to reevaluate how he took care of himself, and explained that he decided to lose weight in order to ensure his continued presence in the lives of his loved ones. Iglesias described the struggle to incorporate a healthier lifestyle, relating how he was told by a specialist that his heavy touring schedule precluded him from being a candidate for bariatric surgery, and how he resorted instead to weight-lifting, Diamond Dallas Page Yoga, and a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet, which helped him shed over. Iglesias has also struggled with depression and alcohol abuse which he attributes partly to burnout from his heavy touring schedule.
