You’ll recognized Andre Royo when you see him. This 44-year-old actor, born in New York of a Cuban father, first came to notice as part of the ensemble case of The Wire back in 2008, though he had been working steadily on TV, indies, and shorts for five years before that. After The Wire, you could have spotted him as a guest on a wide range of high-end TV dramas, from Heroes to Numb3rs to Fringe to How to Make It in America. 2011 and 2012 have been particularly busy; Andre’s one of the handful of “black Latinos” who have significant roles in Red Tails, George Lucas’ feature film on the Tuskegee Airmen, and though he has often been cast in African American roles, he’s also played Latino characters like his recent appearance on Prime Suspect. Next stop…well, it’s not George Lucas, but it’s sure to be legendary.
Andre will be co-starring with Danny Bonaduce (The Partridge Family) and Barry Williams (The Brady Bunch) in Bigfoot, one of those gleefully cheesy monster-movie originals that the SyFy Channel produces in endless variety. They’re just completing production in Seattle, with the former child actors squaring off as “life-long rivals who compete to capture Bigfoot.” Veterans of other legendary TV series will be in attendance as well, including Howard Hesseman (WKRP in Cincinnatti) and Sherilyn Fenn (Twin Peaks). And Alice Cooper is along for the ride too (don’t ask us why).
Andre has half a dozen other projects in production (and pre- and post-), including a couple of horror films (Remnants and The Collection) and a thriller called Shoedog where he’ll be working with Dexter’s David Zayas. Most notably, Andre is part of Derek Velez Partridge’s romantic drama, The Miracle of Spanish Harlem that has involved the talents of a host of committed Latino actors, including Kate del Castillo, Luis Antonio Ramos, Tony Plana, and Adrian Martinez. (You can see a behind-the-scenes trailer that features Kate and the rest of the cast here.) If you’re a Netflix subscriber, you can also catch Andre’s moving performance in Prime Suspect, in what seems to be the last episode of the series, right here.
More on Bigfoot as it shuffles into view later this year.
