Early life

Rivera was born in San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...

 of Mexican

Mexican American

Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...

 descent. He is the oldest child of four brothers and three sisters. As a young boy, he and his family moved to Elysian Valley

Elysian Valley, Los Angeles, California

Elysian Valley is a small bedroom community of the City of Los Angeles, California.It is part of the Elysian Park-Silver Lake area.-History:...

, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

.

Acting career

Rivera's first feature role was in the TV series Renegade

Renegade (TV series)

Renegade is an American television series that ran for 110 episodes spanning 5 seasons between September 19, 1992 and April 4, 1997.The series stars Lorenzo Lamas as Reno Raines, a police officer who is framed for a murder he didn't commit. Raines goes on the run and joins forces with Native...

with Lorenzo Lamas

Lorenzo Lamas

Lorenzo Lamas y de Santos is an American actor. Lamas is known for playing Lance Cumson on the popular 1980s soap opera Falcon Crest, Reno Raines on the 1990s crime drama Renegade, and Hector Ramirez on the daytime soap opera The Bold and The Beautiful...

. He also had a role in the feature film Con Air

Con Air

Con Air is an Academy Award–nominated 1997 American action-thriller film directed by Simon West and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. It stars Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and John Malkovich...

, co-starring Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...

. Emilio has appeared in several commercials, television programs and feature films including Traffic

Traffic (2000 film)

Traffic is a 2000 American crime drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Stephen Gaghan. It explores the illegal drug trade from a number of perspectives: a user, an enforcer, a politician and a trafficker. Their stories are edited together throughout the film, although some of the...

, The Cable Guy

The Cable Guy

The Cable Guy is a 1996 black comedy film, directed by Ben Stiller, and starring Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick. The film also features Leslie Mann, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson...

, NYPD Blue

NYPD Blue

NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...

, Beverly Hills, 90210

Beverly Hills, 90210

Beverly Hills, 90210 is an American drama series that originally aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on Fox and was produced by Spelling Television in the United States, and subsequently on various networks around the world. It is the first series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise...

, Walker, Texas Ranger

Walker, Texas Ranger

Walker, Texas Ranger is an American television action crime drama series created by Leslie Greif and Paul Haggis, and starring Chuck Norris as a member of the Texas Ranger Division. The show aired on CBS in the spring of 1993, with the first season consisting of three pilot episodes. Eight full...

, JAG

JAG (TV series)

JAG is an American adventure/legal drama television show that was produced by Belisarius Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television and, for the first season only, NBC Productions...

, ER

ER (TV series)

ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...

, A Man Apart

A Man Apart

A Man Apart is a 2003 action-thriller-drama film directed by F. Gary Gray and released by New Line Cinema. The film stars Vin Diesel and Larenz Tate. The story follows undercover DEA agent Sean Vetter who is on a vendetta to take down a mysterious drug lord named Diablo after his wife is murdered...

with Vin Diesel

Vin Diesel

Vin Diesel is an American actor, writer, director and producer. He became known in the early 2000s, appearing in several successful Hollywood films, including The Fast and the Furious and xXx...

, John Cusack

John Cusack

John Paul Cusack is an American film actor and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Point Blank, The Thin Red Line, Stand by Me, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, Serendipity, Runaway Jury, The Ice Harvest,...

's film Never Get Outta the Boat, Friday After Next

Friday After Next

Friday After Next is a 2002 comedy film directed by Marcus Raboy, starring Ice Cube and Mike Epps. It is the third installment in the Friday series, and the sequel to the 2000 film Next Friday.-Plot:...

and Ali G Indahouse

Ali G Indahouse

Ali G Indahouse is a British comedy film directed by Mark Mylod and starring the fictional character Ali G, who is performed by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen...

, Rush, Howard Stern

Howard Stern

Howard Allan Stern is an American radio personality, television host, author, and actor best known for his radio show, which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style...

's Son of the Beach

Son of the Beach

Son of the Beach is an American sitcom that aired from 2000 to 2002 on the FX network. The series was a spoof of Baywatch, with much of the comedy based on sexual jokes, innuendo and the like. The studly David Hasselhoff character is instead an average, pot-bellied, out-of-shape bald man but...

and Michael Mann's new series Metro. He also plays Marcus Álvarez

Marcus Álvarez

Marcus Álvarez is a fictional character on the FX television series Sons of Anarchy, played by Emilio Rivera. He serves as one of the main antagonists on the show and is the leader of the Mayans, a Mexican-American biker gang.-Biography:...

 in Sons of Anarchy

Sons of Anarchy

Sons of Anarchy is an American television drama series created by Kurt Sutter about the lives of a close-knit outlaw motorcycle club operating in Charming, a fictional town in Northern California...

and appears in Next Day Air

Next Day Air

Next Day Air is a 2009 action comedy film that was released by Summit Entertainment on May 8, 2009. The film starring Mike Epps and Donald Faison was produced on an estimated budget of $3 million...

.

Personal life

Emilio is married to Yadi Valerio. He has three children from a previous marriage.

Growing up Rivera was known for his fighting abilities, and eventually earned the moniker “”Lefty” referring to his ability to knock opponents unconscious with a single left handed punch.

External links

• Emilio Rivera at Rotten Tomatoes
  Rotten Tomatoes
  Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
  
  
• Emilio Rivera at Hollywood
  Hollywood (disambiguation)
  Hollywood is a district in Los Angeles, United States, often referred to as the center of the U.S. film industry.Hollywood may also refer to:- Canada :* Hollywood North, a colloquialism used to describe Vancouver and other places in Canada...