Rick Gonzalez (born June 30, 1979) is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the films Coach Carter and Biker Boyz.
Gonzalez was born in New York City of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent. His parents met in New York City where they married. They settled down in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn where they raised Rick. There, he attended elementary and Jr. high school. Ever since he was a young child, Rick would put on improvised "shows" for his family and participate in all of his school's plays. His teachers were instrumental in convincing Rick to apply and try out for the High School of the Performing Arts, on which the movie Fame was based, in Manhattan. He did as suggested and was accepted. In 1997, he graduated and began to pursue a career in acting.
Gonzalez started his acting career in New York where he landed a small role in the made for television movie Thicker Than Blood (1998) as Sanchez. In 1999, he made his feature movie debut as Ricky in the movie Mambo Cafe, which was released in the year 2000. He followed that by participating in the film Prince of Central Park (2000) before heading for Los Angeles, California.
In Hollywood, he landed a small part as a gangbanger in the 2001 film Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles. His reputation as an actor started to grow with the roles of Rudy Bonilla in The Rookie, starring Dennis Quaid and as the sex-crazed Primo in the 2003 movie Biker Boyz. In 2005, he played the role of Timo Cruz in the movie Coach Carter. Rick also appeared in Twista's video Hope, which is the lead single off the Coach Carter movie soundtrack. He played the male lead in Mashonda's Back of Tha Club video; and has also starred in the video to Obie Trice's song Snitch, where he plays a member of a group who successfully pull off a bank robbery, and then snitches on them.
Among the other movies in which Rick has participated in are the 2003 comedy Old School (alongside Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell) as "Spanish", Laurel Canyon (2003) as Wyett, Subway Cafe (2004) as Vincent Young, War of the Worlds (2005) as Vincent, Roll Bounce (2005) as Naps, and Pulse (2006) as Stone
His T.V. guest appearances have been in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2000), Touched by an Angel" (2001), ER (2001), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2002) The Shield (2002) and CSI (2006).
