MARITAL STATUS
Professions Actor , Producer , Executive producer
Birth name Javier Manuel Hernandez Jr.
Nationality American
Birth February 20, 1978 (Montebello, California, United States)
BIOGRAPHY
Born in California and of Mexican origin, Jay Hernadez was spotted by talent agent Howard Tyner in an elevator. The latter promises him a career in Hollywood if he signs with him. It was finally on the small screen that his career began, when he joined the teenage sitcom The Girl on the Team for its last three seasons (1998-2000). After the series ended, he landed his first film role in Living the Life (2000). But it was above all his role in the romantic comedy for teenagers Crazy/Beautiful , where he shared the bill with Kirsten Dunst , which made him known the following year.
Subsequently, Jay Hernadez took on roles in the cinema. He notably participated in the sports films Dream of Champion (2002) and Friday Night Lights (2004), the horror films Hostel (2006) and its sequel , as well as In Quarantine (2008). He also rubbed shoulders with renowned actors such as Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta in Fire Trap (2005), Nicolas Cage in World Trade Center (2006) and Samuel L. Jackson in Harassed (2008), three films featuring firefighters or police officers. The actor also had the opportunity in 2005 to play the gangster Carlito Brigante, a character played by Al Pacino in The Dead End by Brian De Palma , taking part in The Dead End: From the Street to Power , which recounts the young years of the character, and which is released directly on DVD in France.
In 2008, Jay Hernandez starred in Live! , a daring mockumentary about a reality TV show whose candidates compete live at Russian roulette, before wearing a police uniform for the heist film Takers (2010). Despite a successful film career, Hernandez regularly attempts to shine on television, although with a little less success. In 2006, he played one of the main roles in the series Six Degrees which was canceled after thirteen episodes, and, towards the end of the 2000s, he was in the casting of three series pilots which were ultimately not ordered. In the cinema, we find him in 2012 in a teenage comedy , remake of the French success LOL – Laughing Out Loud , which allows him to return to the genre which launched him.
Very active on the small screen, between Gang Related orThe Expanse , Jay Hernandez appears, recurrently, in the guise of Dante Rivas, one of Juliette Barnes’ managers, in season 1 of Nashville . This broad television involvement does not, however, prevent him from participating in the Bad Moms saga . Her character, Jessie, turns the head of a mother on the verge of exhaustion ( Mila Kunis ). In 2016, starring in the Blockbuster DC Comics Suicide Squad , he played El Diablo, a former Mexican gangster with pyrotechnic powers. Despite a mixed critical reception, David Ayer ‘s film with Will Smith , Margot Robbie and Jared Leto met with great success with the public.
Building on these successes, Jay Hernandez is involved in large-scale projects. In the seventh season of Scandal , he plays a talk show presenter who does not leave Olivia Pope indifferent. Then, he was part of the cast of Bright , produced by Netflix. It’s an opportunity for him to reunite with Will Smith and David Ayer , one year after Suicide Squad . In 2018, the actor was chosen to play the character of Thomas Magnum in Magnum PI , a reboot of the eponymous series . He then takes over the role, formerly played by Tom Selleck , of a decorated Navy officer converted into a private detective in Hawaii.
