Biografi
Johnny Bazaldua is a Mexican-American actor, writer, and director. Born in Ventura, California, he moved at the age of one to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, where he spent his first four years before the family settled across the border in Brownsville, Texas. His childhood and teenage years unfolded against the backdrop of intense cartel violence in the region from the mid-2000s through 2016. As the Gulf Cartel fractured and warred with its former armed wing Los Zetas, Matamoros became a battleground for smuggling routes, marked by shootouts, massacres, and terror tactics. During those years, Mexico’s drug war death toll often came close to or exceeded the civilian deaths in Afghanistan, with the violence receiving far less international attention. Yet Johnny regularly crossed back and forth between Brownsville and his large extended family in Matamoros, living the duality of a U.S. border town’s relative safety and the constant undercurrent of danger just across the Rio Grande. That bi-cultural, high-stakes upbringing, combined with his artistic family roots, shaped his perspective. Now based in Los Angeles, he draws on those experiences in his work, starring as Noah in The Exit State, taking on various vertical and TV roles, and writing, directing, and starring in his award-winning short film Vincent.
