Ivo Lopez

Ivo Luis Lopez is an American actor, photographer and farmer. Lopez was born on October 21, 1963 in Ciego de Avila, Cuba. Two years later, his family fled the communist-ruled island for Madrid. They lived in Spain for a year then relocated to the United States, spending six years in Brooklyn, New York before moving to Atlanta, Georgia and ultimately settling in Miami Beach, Florida. His father, Edelman Lopez, worked in real estate while his mother, Emma Herrera, was a nurse. Lopez is the youngest of three children, the oldest being his sister, Emma Lopez. His middle sibling is his brother, Edelman Lopez. Lopez spent his formative years in Catholic schools but graduated from a military high school, where his parents enrolled him in hope of taming his "spiritedness." He continued his formal education with two years of study at Miami Dade College. Not sure where to go with life after college, he worked in a variety of jobs, from cable TV sales to bartending and on-set production work. Wanting to expand his horizons beyond Miami, Lopez headed north, living at the Kripalu ashrams in Sumneytown, Pennsylvania and Lenox, Massachusetts for months at a stretch. His acting career began in advertising-he has appeared in more than 50 commercials, some of which took him to Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. As he likes to humorously tell it: "I was never pretty enough to be a model, but boy could I sell soap!" Lopez has done several short films and plays, along with a few pilots that never took off. He realized that a serious pursuit of acting meant moving to Hollywood. So he set new roots in Los Angeles. As a self-taught photographer, Lopez segued into the entertainment industry by taking behind- the-scenes portraits of major artists on music video sets. His portfolio includes some of the biggest names in contemporary music: Christina Aguilera, Pink, Lil' Kim, Mya and Missy Elliot. He has also photographed Pharrell Williams, Snoop Dogg, Timbaland, Heavy D, Niki Costa and Aayliyah. He then turned the camera lens on film, TV and sports celebrities, shooting the likes of James Franco, David Carradine and several Pittsburgh Steelers players. Lopez's first big acting break came when while working in the AD department on Friends & Lovers, the 1999 movie starring Robert Downey Jr., Stephen Baldwin and Claudia Schiffer (While working in the AD department on that film, he booked the part to play the desk clerk, opposite George Newbern and Suzanne Cryer. That experience led him to study with a host of the West Coast's best acting teachers, Ivana Chubbuck and Aaron Speiser among them. Lopez went on to guest star on several popular TV shows, including "Providence" with Melina Kanakaredes and "Alias" with Ron Rifkin. Lopez has also been featured in "Burn Notice," guest starring as Alvaro Desantos. His latest credits are for Netflix's "Bloodline" and "NCIS Los Angeles." He appeared in several episodes of the Emmy award-winning "Bloodline" as Raul Diaz, the brother of Enrique Murciano's character Marco Diaz, working alongside Kyle Chandler, Norbert Leo Butz and Linda Cardellini. He guest starred on an episode of "NCIS Los Angeles" in April 2017, playing the role of Alonzo Raul opposite Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J. Lopez considers Northern California his first home. He lives in Mendocino County with his lovely lady and their two children and a stable of furry creatures that includes dogs and chickens.