Benjamin Bratt

Biography:

Benjamin Bratt was born on December 16, 1963, in San Francisco, California, as the third of five children. His mother, Eldy (née Banda), was a nurse and political activist from Lima, Peru, with Quechua heritage, who immigrated to the U.S. at age fourteen. His father, Peter Bratt Sr., worked as a sheet metal laborer and came from English, German, and Austrian ancestry. Bratt’s paternal grandfather, George Bratt, had been an actor on Broadway.

Committed to Native American activism, Bratt’s mother brought him and his siblings—he was six years old at the time—to the 1969 Native American occupation of Alcatraz, a youth-led protest that drew nationwide attention to Indigenous issues.

Bratt attended Lowell High School in San Francisco, where he participated in the Lowell Forensic Society. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1986 with a BFA and was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. Although he entered the MFA program at the American Conservatory Theater, he left before completing his degree to take a leading role in the 1988 TV movie Juarez.

He began his acting career at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 1987, performing supporting parts in Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III, and The Comedy of Errors. His performance in Juarez earned critical praise. Bratt then appeared in Police Story: Gladiator School, and made his feature-film debut as Esteban in Lovers, Partners & Spies, though the film did not succeed commercially. He went on to work frequently in television, including roles in Knightwatch and Nasty Boys, and later starred in the 1989 film adaptation of Nasty Boys.

After acting in several smaller television and film projects such as One Good Cop and Shadow Hunter, Bratt appeared in two major Hollywood films in 1993: he played Paco Aguilar, a former gang member turned LAPD officer, in Blood In Blood Out, and Officer Alfredo Garcia in Demolition Man. His career continued with supporting roles in The River Wild, Clear and Present Danger, and James A. Michener’s Texas.

Bratt’s return to television as Detective Reynaldo Curtis on Law & Order brought him international visibility. He resumed this role in Homicide: Life on the Street and Exiled: A Law & Order Movie. His performance earned him three ALMA Awards, three SAG Award nominations, and a Primetime Emmy nomination.

In 1999, Bratt left Law & Order, explaining that he needed more time with his family. His final episode aired on May 26, 1999. He briefly returned to the role a decade later in a 2009 episode that reunited him with S. Epatha Merkerson’s Anita Van Buren. He also re-focused on film work that year.

Bratt appeared in The Next Best Thing in 2000, co-starred with Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality, and had a small part in Traffic. In 2004 he joined the cast of Catwoman. Throughout his career, he has often portrayed Latino characters, something he has openly acknowledged. In 2001, he played Puerto Rican poet and actor Miguel Piñero in the biographical film Piñero, earning an ALMA Award for his performance. Bratt openly discussed portraying Piñero’s bisexuality and other aspects of the character’s troubled life, emphasizing that each element helped portray the man fully.

In 2009, Bratt appeared in The People Speak, a documentary inspired by Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, and also starred in and produced La Mission, directed by his brother Peter. His later film work includes The Woodsman, Thumbsucker, The Great Raid, Trucker, Snitch, Ride Along 2, The Infiltrator, and Doctor Strange.

Bratt has also taken notable television roles since the early 2000s, including William Banks in The Cleaner, Dr. Jake Reilly in Private Practice, and Jahil Rivera in Star. He guest-starred in shows such as Frasier, Modern Family, 24: Live Another Day, DMZ, and Poker Face.

His voice work includes roles in multiple animated films. He played El Macho, the villain in Despicable Me 2; voiced Manny in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and its sequel; and portrayed Superman in Justice League: Gods and Monsters. In Pixar’s Coco (2017), he voiced Ernesto de la Cruz, the film’s central antagonist, performing the signature song “Remember Me,” which won the 2018 Academy Award for Best Original Song. The film also won Best Animated Feature.

In 2025, Bratt joined Season 2 of the Disney+ series Andor, playing Senator Bail Organa, a character previously portrayed by Jimmy Smits.

Bratt has remained active in Indigenous advocacy, supporting the American Indian Movement and groups such as the American Indian College Fund. He narrated the 2009 PBS miniseries We Shall Remain for American Experience. He has served on the boards of the Friendship House Association of American Indians and the Native American Health Center in the Bay Area, and has contributed to organizations like the Tribal Athletics Program and United Indian Nations.

In 2002, Bratt and Priscilla López were honored with the Rita Moreno Award for Excellence from the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors. In 2017, he was a consulting producer for Dolores, a documentary about civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, which received critical acclaim and multiple awards. In 2023, he co-executive produced Wings of Dust, a documentary on water contamination in Espinar, Peru.

Bratt dated Julia Roberts from 1998 to 2001. In 2002, he married actress and former Bond girl Talisa Soto, whom he had first met a decade earlier during an audition. Their relationship developed while filming Piñero. The couple have two children: their daughter, Sophia Rosalinda, born December 6, 2002, and their son, Mateo Bravery, born October 3, 2005.

In 2024, San Francisco State University awarded Bratt an honorary doctorate.