Danny Pino

Danny Pino

“Trust me, I would rather be in Miami enjoying the warm tropical sun,” FIU alumnus Danny Pino ’96 wrote in a recent email, “but this is the glamorous, dreamy, amazing price I have to pay for being in this crazy business.”

That “crazy business” has taken Pino from the balmy comfort of his native Miami to settings in New York City, London, Los Angeles and points beyond and thrust him in the company of an unlikely bunch of characters ranging from a classic Hollywood star to sleazy drug dealers and corrupt street cops.

If it sounds like a motley bunch, it’s just a career hazard, part of the business that Pino loves with a passion. It’s the company Pino keeps to pursue his rapidly burgeoning acting career on the stage and television. Since last fall, Pino, a graduate of FIU’s Theatre program, has bounced between Los Angeles and New Zealand for major roles in a television series and a “biopic.”

Last May, Pino starred as Desi Arnaz in Lucy, a CBS television film about Lucille Ball. Arnaz, the Cuban-born musician, actor and husband of Ball, is best remembered for his role as Ricky Ricardo in the television series I Love Lucy. Pino had to learn how to play conga drums and guitar for the role. People magazine praised his “smooth, relaxed performance” in the movie.

“That was an opportunity to play a character that was so influential as an American icon and as a Cuban-American icon,” Pino said during a recent phone conversation from Los Angeles. “He was the first Latino and the first Cuban in Hollywood to make it as a comedian actor and as a producer.

Pino’s latest role is on the new CBS series Cold Case, which airs Sunday nights and is produced by major Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Pino plays Scotty Valens, a detective recently promoted to the homicide department in the Philadelphia police department. He is the partner of lead character Lilly Rush (played by Kathryn Morris), the lone female detective on the squad who is assigned to “cold cases,” unsolved crimes shelved for several years that become active again.

“I am very excited to be part of this project,” Pino said. “The cast is superior, the producers and creative team are exceptional and the network is an exciting place to be.”

Earlier this year, Pino was seen as Armadillo Quintero, a sociopathic drug dealer, on The Shield, the critically acclaimed and Emmy Award-winning series on the FX Network.

“It was really, really fun – really challenging,” said Pino, whose open and amiable nature belies his ability to believably portray the likes of Quintero. “It was certainly a challenge…you have to come from a place of truth [to be convincing].”

In the spring, Pino was in front of cameras again in a leading role of the pilot for Steven Bochco’s new series, NYPD 2069. Unfortunately, the show was not picked up by FOX as was originally planned.

“It’s humbling, frustrating and inspiring at the same time,” he said. “You never want to let your guard down, the next big thing could be around the corner. I’m trying to find the next thing that will challenge and inspire me. It keeps you on your toes. … I feel sort of flattered to be a working professional actor.”

The road from Miami to Hollywood began as it does for many actors: on a public school stage. In Pino’s case, it was a sixth grade musical in which he played an elderly professor who lost his glasses. The love of acting touched him immediately.

“It’s obviously a way to use your imagination and escape from your own way of thinking and developing,” he explained. “More than that is the challenge of pulling it off and making somebody believe you’re somebody else. That’s what’s most fulfilling, that constant challenge.”

Pino landed a theatre scholarship to attend FIU. At the University, he played leading roles in plays including The Taming of the Shrew, Fiddler on the Roof, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, and She Stoops to Conquer.

“Danny was a charming and talented actor,” said Theatre professor Wayne Robinson. “We are very proud but not< surprised at his success.”

Following his 1996 graduation, Pino received a scholarship to attend the graduate theatre program at New York University (NYU), one of the best in the country.

After NYU, Pino appeared in productions by the New York Shakespeare Festival, Lincoln Center Theatre and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. His first television role was as Clay on the WB TV sitcom Men, Women and Dogs, which aired in fall 2001. The show was not renewed beyond its 13-episode run, but Pino considered it an important step in his professional evolution.

“I didn’t see myself necessarily as a sitcom kind of actor,” he commented. “But the series was an education on how to survive in front of the camera and make it your friend.”

After the WB series, Pino returned to the boards in London’s West End in the summer of 2002 for a 10-week run of Up For Grabs, a play starring Madonna, who personally selected him for the role.

Even with a couple of television series, a starring role in a telefilm and a few plays under his belt, Pino feels like he’s just getting started.

“I don’t feel like I’ve necessarily achieved anything yet,” he opined. “I say that in the most humble way possible. There’s a lot more for me to attempt.”