Esai Morales

Esai Manuel Morales (born October 1, 1962) is an American actor.

A native New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent, Esai was born in Brooklyn, New York. His parents divorced when he was a baby. Morales parents: Iris Margarita, a union activist involved with the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, and Esai Morales, a welder. Spoke only Spanish until age 5. Morales began his pursuit of an acting career by attending the School of Performing Arts in Manhattan. His first professional performances were in theater and television in New York, and his first film - Bad Boys, about teenagers in prison - was released in 1983.

In another role he played a similarly unsympathetic character, the ex-convict/biker half-brother of 1950s rock and roll singer Ritchie Valens in the 1987 movie La Bamba. Some of his other roles have reflected his socio-political interests, such as The Burning Season in 1994, My Family/Mi Familia in 1995, The Disappearance Of Garcia Lorca in 1997, and Southern Cross in 1998. In the last three films, as well as in a few others such as Bloodhounds of Broadway in 1989 and Rapa Nui in 1994, Morales was given roles which highlighted (with increasing amounts of screen time) his acting as a man. He portrayed a police officer with the film Dogwatch in 1996. He played Father Herrera in The Virgin of Juarez. Morales appeared on television in the mid-1980s, on Fame. He co-starred with Burt Lancaster in the NBC-TV miniseries, "On Wings of Eagles," playing the Iranian Rashid, the hero of this true story about Ross Perot. Morales has also appeared in Miami Vice, The Equalizer, and 24.

In the 1990s, he guest-starred on episodes of The Outer Limits, Tales from the Crypt, and two shorter-lived series, L.A. Doctors and The Hunger. He was a featured TV actor, seen in a two-part episode of Family Law. His tenure on NYPD Blue as the head of the 15th precinct detective squad began in mid-season 2001 and continued until 2004 when he decided to cancel his contract. In 1994 he was in the Pauly Shore film In The Army Now. Paid in Full was scheduled for release in October 2002. It marked a return to a criminal character such as those in his previous roles - in this case he played a drug dealer named Lulu.

In 2005, he contributed his voice acting to the video game True Crime: New York City, playing Sgt. Victor Navarro. He was also cast in the film American Fusion, and on June 19, 2006, he joined the cast of Fox's series Vanished, as FBI agent Michael Tyner alongside actors Gale Harold and Ming-Na. The series was later canceled. In 2007, he completed filming for Kill Kill Faster Faster, which is a contemporary film noir inspired by the critically acclaimed novel of the same name by Joel Rose. In early 2008, Morales had a lead role in the CBS drama Jericho as Major Edward Beck. He appeared in all seven episodes of the shortened second season. On May 7th 2008, it was announced that Morales will play the role of Joseph Adama in Caprica – the Sci-Fi Channel's prequel to its Peabody Award-winning series Battlestar Galactica.

Morales described himself as an "actorvist" primarily and as one of the founders of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, taking inspiration from his mother, who was an organizer for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. He is also interested in environmental issues and was a founding board member of E.C.O. (Earth Communications Office).

In the February 28, 2007 all-star benefit reading of "The Gift of Peace" at UCLA's Freud Playhouse, he portrays a hopeful member of a struggling immigrant family, and plays alongside actors Ed Asner, Barbara Bain, Amy Brenneman, George Coe, Wendie Malick, and James Pickens, Jr.. The play is an open appeal and fundraiser for passage of U.S. House Resolution 808, which seeks to establish a Cabinet-level "Department of Peace" in the U.S. government, to be funded by a two percent diversion of the Pentagon's annual budget.

Esai is also a vegetarian.

In July 2007, Morales was sued by a former live-in girlfriend who alleged the former "NYPD Blue" star assaulted her and gave her herpes. The Superior Court lawsuit filed on July 19, 2007 by Elizabeth Mazzocchi alleged "intentional and negligent transmission of a sexually transmitted disease, assault, battery and breach of oral contract." Morales has denied the allegations. In March 2008, the L.A. district attorney declined to bring criminal charges against Morales due to insufficient evidence.