Raúl Castillo

Raúl Castillo Jr. (born August 30, 1977) is an American actor and playwright. He is known for his acting roles in Amexicano and Cold Weather and his role as Richie Donado Ventura in the HBO series Looking and its subsequent feature-length series finale Looking: The Movie. He received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in the film We the Animals.

His notable written plays include Border Stories and Between Me, You, and the Lampshade. His works are associated with the LAByrinth Theater Company and the Atlantic Theater Company.

Early life Raúl Castillo Jr. was born to Raúl H. Castillo Sr. and Adela "Adelita" Rodríguez de Castillo. He has an older brother, Tony, and a younger sister. His parents are Mexican immigrants from Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, who later moved to McAllen, Texas, where he and his siblings were raised. Living so close to the Mexico–United States border, Castillo's family would often visit family members who still lived in Reynosa, affording him an upbringing that he describes as "very much bicultural." He was raised Catholic. His childhood nickname was "Gordo" ("fat", in Spanish), due to his weight.

Castillo first became interested in acting in the third grade, after seeing his older brother in a school production of The Wizard of Oz as the Tin Woodman. His brother also was a musician who played guitar, his dedication having been seen by Castillo as he would sit and play scales for hours, which inspired Castillo to use the same technique later for his own performances. Later, in high school, they started an underground punk-rock band called IPM (short for "Influential Phecal Material") together with their friends Nick Trevino and Robert Vleck. Mitchell-Cárdenas played drums while Castillo played bass guitar.

Castillo states that he started acting when he was 14. Castillo also performed in his school’s production of I Remember Mama. It was then, at age 14, that he met and became friends with future staff writer for Devious Maids, Girls and Looking, Tanya Saracho, who also attended McAllen High School. He graduated from Boston University in 1999.

Castillo viewed himself as more of a writer, despite his performing abilities. It was not until after college, while performing the lead role in a 2000 production of Santos & Santos at the Nushank Theater Collective in Austin, Texas, that he felt encouraged in identifying as an actor as well.

Acting career

Stage Castillo has an extensive off-Broadway theater career. There he met actress and later co-star Sandra Oh while she was performing in the Public Theater's production of Satellites. In 2009, he performed in the Off-Broadway premier of Cusi Cram's A Lifetime Burning at Premiere Stages. In 2012, he was cast in Goodman Theater's production of the Cándido Tirado's play Fish Men, about the Guatemalan genocide, in the lead role of Rey Reyes. Castillo also appeared in the 2012 BareBones production of Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train in Pittsburgh, the inaugural performance of which was directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman for the LAByrinth Theater Company. He later was cast in the BareBones reading of The Way West at the Lark Theater. Castillo worked with INTAR Theater, cast in the role of Ismael in the theater's 2014 production of Adoration of the Old Woman to positive reviews. He starred alongside Sandra Oh in the role of Gerardo in the 2014 Victory Gardens Theater production of Death and the Maiden, Death and the Maiden deals with the lives of a couple, a woman who has dealt with some of the atrocities that have occurred under a dictatorship. Castillo describes his heavy role as a "character dealing with the bureaucracy of government, trying to look into the crimes that were committed, specifically the deaths that were committed during the dictatorship". The film was released theatrically in 2008. He continued to appear in short films and independent films, such as My Best Day, and Bless Me, Ultima. His role in the 2011 independent film Cold Weather garnered favorable reviews and praise from critic Roger Ebert. His performance as Hector in the 2012 Student Academy Award-winning short film Narcocorrido earned him an Honorable Mention for Performance at AFI Fest 2012. His performance was praised as a "penetrating lead performance that conveys a sense of loss that leaves a lasting mark on the audience.” In 2019, Castillo starred in the independent film El Chicano, drawing praise from The Hollywood Reporter, which noted that his "charismatic performance in the lead role carries much of the film's weight".

Television During his acting career, Castillo has appeared in various TV roles, including shows such as Nurse Jackie, Blue Bloods, the love interest of main character Patrick, played by Jonathan Groff. HBO describes Looking as a "look as the unfiltered experiences of close friends searching for happiness and intimacy in an age of unparalleled choice". Castillo had previously worked with series creator Michael Lannan as the character Richie in the 2011 short film "Lorimer", upon which Lannan based the pilot episode of Looking. His performance as Richie Donado was universally hailed as a break out role in the series. Critics particularly noted Castillo's portrayal of an openly gay Mexican-American man as a rare representation of the Latino-American community on television. In the show's second season, Castillo was added as a regular cast member alongside co-stars Groff, Frankie J. Álvarez, Murray Bartlett, Lauren Weedman, and Russell Tovey. Due to poor ratings, however, HBO decided to cancel Looking after its second season.

Playwriting Castillo has long been interested in playwriting, studying it in college and initially viewing himself as more of a playwright than an actor. His play Between You, Me, and the Lampshade was developed at the Atlantic Theater Company and is set to premiere in 2015 with the Chicago-based Teatro Vista, the largest Latino Equity theater company in Illinois, at the Richard Christiansen Theater at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theatre. Raul Castillo's dark comedy Between You, Me and the Lampshade explores a family's life on the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2014, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers presented Castillo with the Lupe Award – named after the late, pioneering Latina actress Lupe Ontiveros – in recognition of his breakout performance in Looking. American Horror Stories Toby Episode: "Organ" 2025 Task Cliff Broward 5 episodes 2026 The Walking Dead: Dead City Luis Main cast (season 3) TBA Life Is Strange David Madsen Main cast

Stage Year Title Role Notes 2000 Santos & Santos Tomás Nushank Theater Collective References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot Benito New School for Drama Theater with ABroad Studio Company 2012 Fish Men Rey Reyes Goodman Theater Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train Angel Cruz New Hazlett Theater 2014 Adoration of the Old Woman Ismael INTAR Theater Death and the Maiden Gerardo Escobar Victory Gardens Theater