Yul Vazquez is a Cuban-American actor and musician. He has appeared in Runaway Bride, Bad Boys II, War of the Worlds, American Gangster, The A-Team, Captain Phillips, The Infiltrator, and Midnight, Texas. Vazquez used to be the lead guitarist for melodic rock bands Urgent and Diving For Pearls.
Vazquez's film and television projects include Kill the Messenger starring Jeremy Renner and directed by Michael Cuesta; Anesthesia; and The Cobbler, opposite Adam Sandler, Dustin Hoffman and Steve Buscemi. He can also been seen on the small screen on Lifetime's series The Lottery as Pres. Thomas Westwood and as The Reverend Emilio Sheehan in the NBC series Midnight, Texas. With over 40 film credits, other highlights include roles in six time Oscar nominee Captain Phillips, The A-Team with Liam Neeson, John Sayles's Amigo, Steven Soderbergh’s two-part epic Che, The Take, American Gangster, Music Within, War of the Worlds, Bad Boys II, Traffic and Runaway Bride. He was a regular for both seasons of the Starz drama Magic City. Set in 1960s Miami, the series centers on the upscale Miramar Playa Hotel amongst the political and organized crime drama of the time. Vazquez portrays Victor Lazaro, general manager of the Miramar Playa. Additionally, he has recurred in three other television series, as Pedro in FX's Louie, as Christian in CBS's The Good Wife and as Det. Anthony Nikolich on the HBO television series Treme. Vazquez is a founding member of the LAByrinth Theater Company and served two terms as co-artistic director with Stephen Adly Guirgis and Mimi O'Donnell in New York City. Vazquez starred on Broadway in the Tony nominated The Motherf**ker With The Hat opposite Chris Rock. For his portrayal of the eccentric Cousin Julio, he received nominations for a Drama Desk Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. Additional theater credits include The Last Days of Judas Iscariot opposite Sam Rockwell, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, Terrence McNally's Stendhal Syndrome, Primary Stages with Isabella Rossellini and Richard Thomas, and The Floating Island Plays.
Music career
Prior to starting his acting career, Vazquez was the lead guitar player for East Coast Album-oriented rock bands Urgent and Diving For Pearls. Urgent landed a minor hit with their single "Running Back" which reached #79 on the Billboard Hot 100. A second single from their Cast The First Stonedebut album, "Love Can Make You Cry", was featured on the Iron Eagle soundtrack. Urgent broke up in 1987 after the lackluster success of their sophomore album, Thinking Out Loud. Following the demise of Urgent, Vazquez joined Diving for Pearls, whose eponymous debut album was issued by Epic/Sony Music in 1989. The group was dropped by the label before a second album could be completed due to the musical climate changing in the early 1990s as melodic hard rock fell out of favor in the U.S. In 2009, Vazquez played acoustic guitar with Ian Astbury of The Cult under the name The Soft Revolt appearing at the Bowery Electric in New York City on the opening night of John Patrick Shanley's play Savage in Limbo, which Astbury was producing. They performed songs by The Cult and Astbury solo material as well as covers by the Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Radiohead, among others.
