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Benjamin Bratt

Benjamin Bratt brings an easy authority to the screen, whether he is playing a detective, a conflicted public figure or an animated villain with a taste for spectacle. Born in San Francisco on December 16, 1963, Bratt began his professional acting career at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, taking supporting roles in Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III and The Comedy of Errors during its 1987 season. He soon moved into television films and series, including Juarez, Knightwatch and Nasty Boys. His film career gained momentum in 1993 with two sharply different visions of law enforcement: Paco Aguilar, a gang member who becomes an LAPD officer, in Blood In Blood Out, and Officer Alfredo Garcia in Demolition Man. Supporting parts in The River Wild and Clear and Present Danger followed, but television gave Bratt his most widely recognized early role. As Detective Reynaldo Curtis on Law & Order, he became a central presence in the series and received three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. He later returned briefly as the retired Curtis in 2009. Bratt has regularly moved between mainstream entertainment and more character-driven work. He played poet and actor Miguel Piñero in the 2001 biopic Piñero, earning an American Latino Media Arts Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture. In 2009, he starred in and produced La Mission, directed by his brother Peter Bratt. His film work also includes Miss Congeniality, Traffic, The Woodsman, The Great Raid, The Infiltrator and Doctor Strange, while television has taken him from Private Practice and Star to DMZ and Poker Face. Voice acting has opened another productive side of his career. Bratt voiced Manny in both Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs films, El Macho in Despicable Me 2, Superman in Justice League: Gods and Monsters and Ernesto de la Cruz in Coco. In 2025, he joined the second season of Andor as Senator Bail Organa. Across film, television and animation, Bratt’s appeal lies in that versatility: he can project composure, danger, warmth or vanity without losing the grounded presence that connects his varied roles.