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Born in New York City's Spanish Harlem, Izzy Ruiz was born to act. He moved to the south Bronx at the age of 5, where he spent most of his life since. Izzy has experienced so much in life, that others would find unbearable or unrealistic. From seeing a man shot in the head when he was 6 years old to seeing a bus run over another child's head when he was 8 years old. He has experienced hundreds of other life and death situations during his life time, and plans on telling his story in the future in screen and stage plays.
Izzy was born to Puerto Rican Parents who grounded him with good and positive moral values in the midst of a time when it seemed hell had come to earth. Izzy survived the south Bronx during the late 1960s through the 1980s, when New York City was at its worse. Slum lords were burning the Bronx down, gangs were common and drugs were as common as candy. His guardian angels included some of the most notorious gangs of that time, the Savage Nomads, the Savage Immortals, and the Savage Skulls; they also included some of New York City's Finest, the NYPD. You see Izzy's father owned bodegas, or grocery stores. At the bodegas both the good and bad congregated, and were befriended by his father. In return they made sure that Izzy was watched on the streets. In fact when he wanted to join one of these gangs, they, the gangs, prohibited him from even thinking about it. The police on the other hand made sure that he stayed straight, when they caught Izzy doing things he should not be doing, the police would take him directly to his father who served serious punishment. Many other stories will be told in the future. Izzy's story is a cross between "A Bronx Tale" and " Stand By Me".
Izzy attended catholic school until the seventh grade and then the NYC public school system. When he graduated to high school he attended five different schools including his junior year in Puerto Rico. After that he went to Ithaca College for 4 semesters and then Baruch College for 2 semesters. While in Ithaca he majored in business administration, and he got his first taste of acting. He acted in two stage plays and one student film. After 3 years of college he was recruited to work at Hitachi America. There he discovered that business is not what he wanted to do for life. He then took various state and federal exams that included, the NYPD, New York State Troopers, FBI, and DEA. He passed all exams and was called. Being bilingual opened many doors for him, but it was also a negative for him because most agencies wanted him to leave New York City to other Spanish speaking areas. Izzy decided on the NYPD, because he was not leaving the city he loves. There is where he found what he believed was his real calling.
Izzy became a police officer and did street time, or patrol, for 3 years. After that he became an undercover in the narcotics division. He was assigned to the Queens TNT unit. He was not welcomed there with open arms do to the fact that he was not what they expected. They were excited they were getting a Puerto Rican, but when he arrived they were disappointed because he was "white". They were expecting a person of color, and Izzy is as white as white can be,in skin color. They told him that after his 90 day probation he would be going back to patrol. They believed that he was not going to do well, considering the neighborhoods were black and Colombian. To cut to the chase Izzy proved them wrong. Not only was he able to buy drugs from anyone, he was the number 2 man with the most buys and positive results in the unit. He then went on to work in the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn. He was awarded the Medal Of Valor for a shooting incident where his life was on the line. He then continued his undercover work at the Department Of Investigation Squad, where he went undercover as a white collar business man, business owner, city inspectors, welfare recipient and many other undercover assignments involving white collar crime as well as organized crime. He has been an undercover Detective for 15 of his 20 years as a police officer. He is good at what he does, and it all made sense when he first took his acting classes. You see without him knowing all that time Izzy was pretending to be someone else, truthfully. He would become that assignment fully, whether it was a junkie or a business man he did well, where he made others believe it.
One day while at a police function he met an actor he recognized from the HBO series OZ. It was just a passing meet but in the following months their paths crossed again at a friend's party and there he learned that this actor was a retired cop. This cop was David Zayas. Izzy asked Zayas how he got into acting and Zayas stated that there was an acting school near the police academy and he walked in and took some classes and it began there. He vested out after 15 years as a police officer because he was very successful as an actor. Zayas informed Izzy that if he was interested he should look into the school. The school was the William Esper Studio.
That was the beginning. Izzy found the school and studied under William Esper himself. He completed the professional two year course and the one year Masters program. He has also taken other courses that include script analysis, stage combat, and auditioning techniques to name a few.
This is where he discovered that all the time he was an undercover, and the reason he was so good at it was because he loved what he was doing. What he was doing was acting. While taking acting classes he realized that for most of his life all he did was act. While he hung out with the gangs he acted like them, when around the police he acted like them. Izzy found that he can adapt to any environment because he truly believes at that moment that he is that person he is portraying, and the acting classes helped him even more. By giving him an understanding of what he was doing. So yes Izzy did find his calling while in the NYPD, but it was not completely identified until his teacher, William Esper, opened his mind.
Izzy retired from the NYPD in 2008 and is now focusing all his energy on acting. He invites you to stay tuned, he will do his best to entertain you.
