BIOGRAPHY

Joel de la Fuente

On stage, Joel has worked all over the world and collaborated with some of the most celebrated theater artists on three continents. In addition to working all over the United States, Mr. de la Fuente has performed in Vienna, London, Rome and Paris. He has shared the stage with opera singers, modern dancers, and Chinese kunqu masters and been directed by such luminaries as Peter Sellars, Liviu Ciulei, and Michael Mayer.

Joel is also active with the National Asian American Theater, where he served as the 2005 Artistic Associate. He has appeared in five productions with NAATCO: as Travis in “Cowboy v. Samurai;” as Ivanov in “Ivanov;” Iago in “Othello”; as the young lover, Frondoso, in“Fuente Ovejuna”; and in NAATCO’s protest to the Gulf War, “Air Raid”.

An avid classical theater performer, Mr. de la Fuente has also played Vershinin in “The Three Sisters,” Florizel in the critically praised, “Winter’s Tale” at the Williamstown Theater Festival, and Valentine in “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” for the prestigious New York Shakespeare Festival (“Shakespeare in the Park”).

On television, Joel currently appears as TARU technician Ruben Morales in “Law & Order: SVU.” He was a series regular on the Fox drama, “Space: Above & Beyond;” and had recurring roles on: “E.R.;” “High Incident;” "Canterbury's Law," and the Sidney Lumet series, “100 Centre Street.”

Selected film credits include: “Personal Velocity” (Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner); “Heights”; “Return to Paradise”; and “From Other Worlds.”

As a writer, Joel’s essay on his experiences as an Asian American actor is published in Pyong Gap Min’s “Struggle for Ethnic Identity,” which has become a staple in Asian American studies programs all over the country. He is a co-writer of “Life Document 2: Identity” which won the Columbia Students Award for Best Film in 2002.

Joel is an alumnus of Brown University and the Graduate Acting Program at N.Y.U. He lives in Maplewood, New Jersey with his wife, his two daughters, and two dogs.