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Esteban Andres Cruz

Esteban Andres Cruz was born in Berwyn and raised in Cicero, Illinois and has been acting since the age of 5. They began their career as Ignorance or Want in a local stage production of A Christmas Carol and the stage has been their home ever since. Raised by a Puerto Rican father and a Mexican mother-Esteban and their 5 brothers grew up in the town made famous by Al Capone and more recently, Joe Montegna. At every holiday and family gathering, Salsa & Merengue were acceptable forms of dance, but ballet was forbidden. In high school Esteban started dancing Mexican Folklorico and joined the theater department. J Sterling Morton East High School boasted a beautiful 2,000 seat auditorium known as the Chodl. Still on the national registry of historic places, the Chodl was host to many touring companies as well as high school productions. Thomas Rusnak who ran the theater, taught Esteban and their peers not only about acting but of all the elements of stage craft and the various parts of creating theater. As a member of both the Tech Guild and Thespian Society, Esteban performed in the schools plays and musicals and then also had several jobs and in all aspects of the theatre. It was also in high school that Esteban began their career as a dancer, choreographer and singer. After finally being allowed to go and study with Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre at the Fine Arts Building in Chicago and winning a full scholarship to the school, Esteban began their training in concert dance. After 6 months of study with Deeply Rooted, Esteban was promoted to the second company and began their professional dance career. Working in the company, Esteban started to choreograph. First for other dancers, then for their high school and finally working in Chicago's storefront theater scene-at age 17. Esteban won the AFTER DARK AWARD for BEST CHOREOGRAPHY as a senior in high school. Esteban later continued their work as a choreographer and movement director, specifically setting movement on actors who are not trained dancers for the stage and later the screen. Also at the Fine Arts building Esteban began to train in Italian art songs and German Lieder, singing Schubert and Schuman as well as Beethoven and Brahms. They trained with the Wagnerian tenor Robert Berthold for years beyond high school and college. College took them to the dance conservatory Barat, where they studied for two years under Eileen Cropley (Paul Taylor Company/Paul Taylor's partner...creating the lineage to Martha Graham-Esteban is a "3rd Generation Graham Dancer"). Though they majored in dance, they still performed as an actor and minored in classical music-singing and playing piano. Their love for jazz music also started to flourish at this time. After two years at conservatory, Esteban continued their studies in dance (Limon, Horton, Cunningham) at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They also sang with the University Big Band and several small combos. Falling in love with the English Department, they finished their studies with a degree in Rhetoric (creative writing; creative non-fiction and prose poetry) and a minor in Dance. Writing and assistant teaching in Feminism and Chicana Feminist Theory took over most of their studies but Esteban continued to perform in the dance department, in theatre productions and became a principal dancer with the Champaign-Urbana Ballet. They joined the corps de ballet of the Cincinnati Ballet after college and after a season moved to Chicago. In Chicago, they were able to explore all the different avenues of their artistic life. In Chicago, Esteban worked as a dancer both freelancing with ballet companies as well as as a company member with a number of modern troupes (Hedwig Dances, Zephyr Dance, Deeply Rooted). Esteban was a part of RTG Dance for seven years, where they performed, taught and choreographed for the company. They also got to perform both in Chicago's rich storefront theater scene as well as the thriving improv and sketch communities. They also continued performing and training in jazz. Esteban was seen pretty regularly at the New Apartment Lounge on 79th and MLK in Chicago on Tuesday nights. That's where a lot of young musicians would go to listen to veteran jazz legend Von Freeman. Von would open up the set to the "young bloods" at the end of the night. When Von invited Esteban up on stage to sing with the band, he'd encourage them to go for an extra chorus-forcing them to really hone their musical improvisation skills. While studying musical improv in the jazz clubs, Esteban studied improv at iO (formerly Improv Olympic). They were at iO for seven years and performed on several teams, including LIONELLE, The Gerald (Harold's Gay Cousin) and they also performed as a sit-in with the musical improv troupe; BABY WANTS CANDY. They also performed at the Annoyance, the Playground and Second City. Second City is where they met Salsation! (a latino sketch comedy troupe). They went on to be a part of the company and perform in sketches and revues. One of Esteban's favorite shows with Salsation! was the Fanta Menace and in that revue, they got to perform in SCAREFACE, THE MUSICAL as the title character. Continuing to perform in theater around the city, acting started to take a front seat for all of the work Esteban loved to do. However in 2008, they got to perform in their first opera. Esteban made their operatic debut as PUCK in Benjamin Britten's MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. It was around this same time that many major career breakthroughs happened for Esteban. In 2009 they did their first national commercial for Southwest Airlines, joined SAG-AFTRA, joined ACTORS EQUITY ASSOCIATION and had their first major breakthrough role in film. They played the role of Pepe Perez in A VERY HAROLD & KUMAR 3D CHRISTMAS, where Danny Trejo played their uncle. Esteban began the first day of school at the School at Steppenwolf in 2009 as well. That same evening (of the first day of school) was the Jeff Awards (Chicago's Tony Awards). Esteban was nominated for BEST ACTOR for their performance as Angel Cruz in Stephen Adly Guirgis's JESUS HOPPED THE A TRAIN. Their teacher at SAS, ALEXANDRA BILLINGS told Esteban that they were going to win that night. However, it was Esteban's first lead in Chicago (theater) and all the other nominees were all veterans of the stage so they didn't think they stood a chance. Well, Esteban did win and was at a loss for words when delivering their acceptance speech. Following the award and school, their theatre career flourished in Chicago and beyond. After performing in the award winning production of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, directed by DAVID CROMER-Esteban was asked to continue and join the East Coast remount of the same production, along with JESSICA HECHT and SAM ROCKWELL in the lead roles. They came back to Chicago and continued to work in many theaters including VICTORY GARDENS, WRITERS THEATER, THE GOODMAN, STEPPENWOLF THEATER and many others. They then moved to Hollywood and continued to work in TV and film and the occasional play. In 2017 Esteban attended their first Independent Spirit Awards and celebrated the victory of their Sundance debut film SPA NIGHT. The film was awarded the CASSEVETTI BEST FEATURE AWARD. In 2018 Esteban won the Theatre Communication Group's National Award; The Fox Foundation Actor Fellowship. It was a 25K Award for some of the nation's best stage actors. Esteban was one of the four recipients that year, for exceptional merit. They used the award to travel to Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria and live in a compound with 50 other volunteers to repair, build and rebuild damaged roofs. They worked mainly in the small rural towns of Yabucoa and Humacao. They also started collaborating with STEPHEN ADLY GUIRGIS on two new plays; HALFWAY BITCHES GO STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN and a stage adaptation of DOG DAY AFTERNOON. In 2020 Esteban made their off-Broadway debut in Stephen's world premiere of HALFWAY BITCHES GO STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN and was nominated for the DRAMA DESK AWARD for BEST FEATURED ACTOR. Esteban is still awaiting their return to the stage since the pandemic. In the meantime they have been continuing to work in film and television. They will be featured in the upcoming film RATTLED! and made a great comic turn in the second season of the Chicago series; SOUTH SIDE as Mr Coquavin. Esteban also recently got back to their choreography / movement roots by coaching movement for the television series LIGHTYEARS, starring SISSY SPACEK and J.K. SIMMONS. They got to work with the incredible director VICTORIA MAHONEY. The stage is Esteban's home, dance was their first love and they look forward to telling more stories on the big and small screens.

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