Paul Rodriguez

Rodriguez’s son Paul Rodriguez, Jr. is a professional skateboarder. He has another son named Lukas.

Paul Rodriguez was born in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico in the family of Mexican agriculture extensive farmers. In 1957, he, along with his family, moved to United States in order to achieve better opportunities.

He was brought up in East Los Angeles, around the Watts area and attended the Roosevelt High School. Unfortunately, his father injured his back and Rodriguez had to contribute the family by working as a fruit picker.

Soon, the whole family moved to Compton and there Rodriguez went to the Dominguez High School. While he was studying in his school, it is said that he got involved with the Compton Varrio Setentas street gang.

He decided to serve in the military and after getting enlisted, he was sent to military service in Iceland. After returning back, he went to college and aspired to become an attorney.

Eventually, while studying at the Long Beach Community College, Rodriguez dropped the idea of getting into the legal services and developed a love for standup comedy.

After Rodriquez had finally decided to pursue standup comedy in his life, he started looking for opportunities to polish his talent, which is why he started working as a doorman at L.A.’s famous The Comedy Store.

He got the opportunity to portray his comic talent on the silver screen for the first time with the movie, ‘D.C. Cab’ in 1983. The R-rated controversial comedy was co-written and directed by Joel Schumacher.

His first big television break came with ‘a.k.a Pablo’ in 1984; a gig that he managed to achieve after Norman Lear was impressed with his acting in ‘Gloria’. ‘Pablo’ was about a Hispanic stand-up comic, ‘Paul Rivera’ and his Mexican-American family.

Between 1986 and 1987, Rodriquez managed to capture five roles in movies, like: Orion Pictures' Miracles, Paramount Picture's The Whoopee Boys, Columbia Picture's Quicksilver, and Universal's Born in East L.A—a role he was really appreciated for.

In 1988, Rodriguez was the host of ‘The Newlywed Game’ and appeared in the show for one season before it was cancelled. During his time, the show used the 1958 song ‘Book of Love’, by The Monotones, as a theme song.

Although it was a very short-lived television series but ‘a.k.a. Pablo’ in 1984, especially designed around Rodriguez, is considered to be a prominent milestone in his life as the portrayal of ‘Paul Rivera’ established him as a talented comedian.