Biografia
Mauricio Mendoza was born in Davis, California to a Colombian mother from Pasto, and father from Bogota. After his birth, his parents returned to Bogotá, and to Cartagena for a few years. In 1982 at the age of 12, his family relocated to Davis, CA. Mauricio's mother always encouraged his brothers and him to perform. He was inspired by actor Raúl Juliá's ability to sing, dance, perform in film, and his great strength as a Shakespearean actor. He attributes his Masters in Classical Theater to the motivation felt from Juliá's career. He also found inspiration and motivation as an actor in Esai Morales after seeing his performance in La Bamba, and feeling he had finally seen an actor on screen that he could identify with.
Mauricio lived in San Diego where he got his Bachelors in Musical Theater from the United States International University, his masters from the University of San Diego and Old Globe Professional Actor Training Program in Classical Theater. His mentors, William Virchis, director/teacher and Richard M. Brunelle, his music teacher pushed him to become the best and to believe in himself by telling him that he had what it took to achieve his dream. Once he graduated, he decided to pursue everything from theater, to commercials, television, film, and voice overs. He moved to Los Angeles in 1994 where his versatility, and being fully bilingual allowed him to maintain constant work in all mediums.
Mauricio has been part of four groundbreaking Latino based television shows including being series regular in Sony Tristar's /Telemundo's Angeles for one season and Showtime's Resurrection Blvd., which lasted three years with best actor nominations. His most recent roles include work in La Quinceañera, East Los High, Hacienda Heights, Criminal Minds, The Last Man On Earth, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larceny with Dolph Lundren, Crave-The Fast Life, Blow and True Form Film's The Internationals, which he also produced. He looks forward to working with directors such as Alejandro G. Iñarritú, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, and Robert Rodríguez, and with actors Al Pacino, Denzel Washington, Antonio Banderas, Javier Bardem, Hugh Jackman, Robert De Niro and John Travolta.
In 2007 Mauricio became interested in working as producer. In an assertive move to change things in Hollywood and to be able to create his own opportunities he became the executive producer and producer of the Imagen Award winning 13 episode web series Encounters along with Miguel Torres and Armando Acevedo. Mauricio's production credits include films, music videos, shorts and web series including After School, Fighting Chance, SinVergüenzas, The Shifting and Intolerance; music videos The Power Of One and Recuperar starring his brother Andres Mendoza, and the shorts Mi Amor, It Can Only Be Used Once Directed by Michael DeLorenzo, From Now On directed by Ivonne Coll, Between the Lights, One directed by Carlos Carrasco, Him and Her, and The Real Faces of Dialysis. He is part owner of True Form Films, a production company he runs with wife Yeniffer Behrens and with DeWayne Cox. His goal is to build True Form Films to be a self-sufficient production company that is able to produce content all year around.
In addition to film, Mauricio has over 50 theater credits including a very successful run of Karen Zacarías' Destiny of Desire directed by José Luis Valenzuela. This stage production ran at the South Coast Repertory Theater last year for two months and then headed to Chicago at the Goodman Theater for two more. His most notable theater performances include playing Bernardo in West Side Story, El Gallo in the Fantasticks, Guido in Nine, Juan Julián in Anna In The Tropics, Kevin Rosario in In The Heights, Cinderella's Prince in Into The Woods, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Ernesto Del Río in Destiny of Desire, The New Mambo Kings conceived by him and his twin brother Actor/director Carlos A. Mendoza, and Magaldi in Evita. His charitable work includes fund raising and visits to Casa Hogar an orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico and organization he was introduced to by his friend and actor Nicholas Gonzalez. On his spare time, he works on producing material that will makes a difference in the world, on becoming a game changer, and being a great father and husband.
