Biography
Atticus is the middle child and only boy of three children. He and his sisters Jeanne and Janice loved American television as kids and would often pass the time by reenacting scenes from Jim Henson's Sesame Street and other children's shows made available in Manila, like The Electric Company and Villa Alegre.
He attended private Catholic schools through the 5th grade, where he went by the name of Charles as most of his teachers could not pronounce Atticus, correctly, and some of his schoolmates teased him for it. During much turmoil within the Philippines in the early 80s, Atticus, his mother and sisters immigrated to the U.S. to explore opportunities in 1985. Atticus entered his first academic class in the U.S. as a sixth grader at Patterson Elementary School in Fremont California. His teacher, Claire Mahuna, insisted that Atticus reconsider being addressed by his first name as opposed to "Charles," which he obliged.
Atticus did a lot of growing up in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area and had moved countless times within the cities of Fremont, Union City, San Leandro and Newark. In high school, Atticus found a love for acting in drama class and soon found himself performing in front of an audience, slowly falling deeper and deeper in love with the arts. A few years later, he reignited his acting by performing in the summer theater programs at Cal State East Bay; Broadway by the Bay; then later joining up with the American Musical Theater Artist Institute (AMTAI) in San Jose, and performing in The Mountain Play in Marin, California. It was at AMTAI where Atticus became more focused as a performer. AMTAI's founder and executive director, Marc Jacobs, gave him the motivation to pursue acting as a possible career.
Atticus moved to Los Angeles in 2002, shortly after being married. He served as a performer and assistant choreographer for the Knightsbridge Theater in Silverlake, CA, then danced with the Meh-Tropolis Dance Theater in LA. In 2006, Atticus' son, Brady Charles "Smokey" was born.
It wasn't until after his first marriage had ended in 2009, that his acting career took a bigger leap. He launched into voice and commercial acting, then earned a lead role in a series of commercials geared towards the Asian market, where he played a forgetful husband. He has also lent his voice for a series of McDonald's ads, while narrating in his native language of Tagalog. In 2016, he landed his first role on American TV as a paramedic on the award winning Amazon series, Transparent.
After eloping in 2016 with the love of his life, Louise Larson, in Big Sur, California, he earned roles; on CBS's (2016) 2 Broke Girls and on ABC's (2017) Speechless.
"Dream silly, dream big" is a saying which Atticus attributes to one of the many lessons his dad Ariel had taught him when he was younger. He has also passed this down to his son, Smokey - No matter how silly your dream may be, if you really want it and it's big enough, you may surprise yourself in how close you get to it or end up actually living it.
