Paul Rodriguez

Friendly as all get-out, Latino stand-up comic Paul Rodriguez was born in Mexico but raised in East Los Angeles. After finishing his military service, he went to college on the GI bill with the idea of becoming an attorney, but developed an interest in comedy while taking elective courses. Paul honed his stand-up act at L.A.'s famous The Comedy Store while working as a doorman there, and got his break as an opening act for others at various concerts and universities and as a warm-up comic on Norman Lear's short-lived sitcom Gloria (1982) starring Sally Struthers. Lear was so impressed that he wrote and developed a sitcom specifically for Paul entitled a.k.a. Pablo (1984), which caught the public's eye only briefly. Other comedy series followed, however, including Trial and Error (1988) and Grand Slam (1990), and a few movies also came his way with D.C. Cab (1983) and Born in East L.A. (1987). Sticking to his Latino roots as the basis for his comedy, he has made an appealing crossover