Biography
Esai Morales is an American actor. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he trained at the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan and began his career on stage before making his film debut in Bad Boys (1983).
He is known for his role as Bob Morales in the biopic La Bamba (1987), as Lt. Tony Rodriguez on the television series NYPD Blue (2001–2004), Camino del Rio on Ozark (2017), Joseph Adama on Caprica (2009–2010), and Slade Wilson / Deathstroke on Titans (2019). Morales played the antagonist Gabriel opposite Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) and reprised the role in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025). He co-founded the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts.
