Manuel Pérez "Manny" Batista (born May 5, 1969) is a

Dominican American Dominican Americans (, ) are Americans who trace their ancestry to the Dominican Republic. The phrase may refer to someone born in the United States of Dominican descent or to someone who has migrated to the United States from the Dominican R ...

actor who has appeared in the television series ''Third Watch'' and in the film ''Washington Heights''. He is the cousin of

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-winning author

Junot Díaz Junot Díaz ( ; born December 31, 1968) is a Dominican American writer, creative writing professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a former fiction editor at '' Boston Review''. Central to Díaz's work is the immigrant experience ...

Life and career

Pérez was born in Baitoa, Santiago, Dominican Republic and currently lives in

Washington Heights, Manhattan Washington Heights is a neighborhood in the northern part of the Borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is named for Fort Washington (Manhattan), Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the Bennett Park (Ne ...

. Pérez is one of 11 siblings. By the time Pérez finished

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

he knew that he wanted to be an actor so he moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

where he majored in drama at

Marymount Manhattan College Marymount Manhattan College is a private college on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. As of 2020, enrollment consisted of 1,571 undergraduate students with women making up 80.1% and men 19.9% of student enrollment. Columbia University Masters ...

, graduating in 1992. He studied at

Ensemble Studio Theatre The Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) is a non-profit membership-based developmental theatre located in Hell's Kitchen, New York City. It has a dual mission of nurturing individual theatre artists and developing new American plays. Overview The E ...

and is a member of the LAByrinth Theatre Company, in New York City. Following his performance on the film ''Washington Heights'' (which he also co-wrote and produced), Pérez garnered praise from many critics. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' stated, "Mr. Perez has charisma to burn." He won the 2002 Best Actor Award at The Milan International Film Festival in Italy for his performance in ''Washington Heights''. At the Santo Domingo Invita show, he was honored as one of the most prominent Dominican actors in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. In November 2007, Pérez was honored in the Dominican Film Festival held in Puerto Plata along with

Dania Ramirez Dania Ramirez (born November 8, 1979) is a Dominican actress. Her credits include the roles of Maya Herrera in the NBC series '' Heroes'', Alex in the HBO series '' Entourage'', and Blanca during the last season of the HBO crime drama ''The So ...

for his humanitarian work in the Dominican Republic. When Pérez received the award, he said that his first pair of shoes were given to him at the age of five by his father and that he only wore them to go to

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

on Sundays. Pérez also said that when he first came to the United States, he gained a great deal of weight from what was later discovered to be hookworms in his stomach, which had first infected his feet after he walked the streets barefoot. Pérez donated 10,000 shoes to families who lost everything after

Hurricane Noel Hurricane Noel was a deadly tropical cyclone that carved a path of destruction across the Atlantic Ocean from the Caribbean Sea to Newfoundland in late October 2007. The sixteenth tropical depression, fourteenth named storm, and the sixth hurric ...

swept across the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

. In 2012 he was elected by Luz García's ''Noche de Luz'' programme as a "Summer's Hot Body".

Filmography

Source:

Film

Television

References

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Perez, Manny 1969 births Living people Dominican Republic emigrants to the United States Hispanic and Latino American male actors Male actors from Providence, Rhode Island People from Washington Heights, Manhattan Dominican Republic male actors 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors American male film actors American male television actors