Biography
Rio Rocket was born in Manhattan, NY and adopted shortly after birth by his great-aunt and great-uncle. He was raised with his adoptive parents and their three daughters in Queens, NY. He was exposed to many things as a child, including music. Rio learned to play five different instruments growing up. His great-aunt also exposed him to travel across and outside the United States, namely to the island of Sint Maarten where his family migrated from the Netherlands.
Although he grew up as a great fan of film and television, he never had any intention of pursuing acting. He became interested in acting after reading that Fred Seibert was granted the rights to the Samurai Jack film, directed and written by Genndy Tartakovsky. Rio grew up practicing celebrity and character impressions and does a spot-on 'Aku', the antagonist. Since the original voice actor, Mako, passed away in 2017, Rio intended to attend an open audition for the role, but unfortunately the project was delayed indefinitely.
Shortly thereafter, a friend introduced him to a voice-acting coach who gave him a foundation for voice-acting and working with scripts. Rio went on to take additional acting and improvisation classes while accepting voice-over projects for television, radio, and the web. After several suggestions, he gave on-screen acting a try, taking on several small budget, independent projects. Eventually, he landed his first lead role in the Day 23 Segment of the independent film Slumber Party.
To gain some additional Hollywood-set experience, he landed an extra role in the upcoming Ocean's Eight film and continues to work on building his acting career through a variety of upcoming film, television, and commercial projects.
Rio is a also highly accomplished graphic artist, illustrator, designer, web developer, online marketer, and entrepreneur.
