The summer of 2004, every moviegoer was delighted by the return of favorable characters like Shrek, Harry Potter, and Spiderman, but no cinema enthusiast ever expected the mega success to the tiny film, Napoleon Dynamite. It was an outsider to mainstream comedies, but delivered fresh new talents like filmmaker Jared Hess, actor Jon Heder, and actor Efren Ramirez.

Well, to be honest, the last actor, Ramirez, has been showing his acting skills way before his lovable character Pedro was ever concerned about anyone in school voting for him. Efren has shown his talents in TV commercials, and has had parts in some popular TV shows, like ER and Judging Amy. But even with his extensive profile of acting, Ramirez had to climb through obstacles in his life to achieve stardom.

Efren Ramirez grew up in East Los Angeles; Lincoln Heights to be exact. The neighborhood had its good times and bad times. But he remembers when times started to get worse; his family would be prepared to move.  Any number of reasons would be a factor, his father and mother just wanted the best living conditions for their children. Gangs were always lurking around the corners of the neighborhood. “People see how Latinos are viewed on TV, not in high class area, but in the hoods,” exclaims Ramirez. His dad and mom each worked two jobs, and always rented a house. That made it easier as they moved every two to three years due to some gang related episode. Once they moved because they were robbed, once because the father’s car was stolen and then set on fire, and there was even one time Efren was a victim in an “attempted” carjacking in his driveway.

As a family they moved from Lincoln Heights to Pomona; from North Hollywood to Glendale, and etc. Like Efren remembers, every two to three years they would move from neighborhood to neighborhood.  One funny story he wanted to share was when he was about seven years old, he and his brother thought it was not cool to speak Spanish. However, their parents on the other hand thought differently, so they had Efren and his little brother live in Boyle Heights with their grandparents and they had to talk, read, and watch TV in Spanish for two years. Efren looks at the situation, now being bilingual, a life lesson worth learning.

Efren’s parents did not like the public school system, so they enrolled Efren and his twin brother in private schools. They attended a High School which was taught by Irish Catholic Priests. Even though they were into different interests, his brother was into disco and free-styling, and Efren was into Depeche Mode and the Cure;  their mother put them in theater for an after school activity. Efren saw it as a great outlet for himself; nevertheless, his older brothers booed Efren and his little brother for being in theater. Their mother was not just proactive about her kids after school activities but was also on top of what they ate, she started to work in the high school cafeteria.

Having friends always seemed to be a difficult matter for Efren. He either had friends who were currently in a gang, or in the process of entering a gang. He recalls when he was a teen coming back to the projects that a good majority of the kids he hung out with became gang members. One of the guys he hung out with tried to jack his bike while he was on it. Efren has had friends who have been shot, or passed away. Something as tragic as a friend being killed always confused him, “They got shot for a stupid reason because they owned this block and not that block. Really what were they really fighting for?” All through his life Efren’s family has been surrounded by gangs and gang members; it is just surprising to him that they have all been Latinos.  

The chaos outside of school has never let Efren lose his way, because acting started to be his one true love and calling. He went to college, Cal State  L.A. and Santa Monica Community College, but he still stuck with theater and he entered into acting school at the same time. With the experience of acting school he learned how to audition for commercials, but even though he was twenty-one years old at the time he had trouble getting acting gigs as he looked thirteen years old. Efren shared another funny anecdote, this time about being on the set of Kazaam, the Shaquill O’ Neal genie movie. He, 24 years old, said he would be driving around in his car, and the rest of his thirteen year old cast members would be riding around on their bikes. He may have looked like a kid, but he was all grown up.

Around the time Efren was auditioning for TV commercials, he sought out an agent to represent him. Because of his youthful looks, he received more acting gigs with commercials, especially as he was bilingual. Efren had the opportunity to work on both English and Spanish commercials, and they were not always just national but international commercials. So, with double the time that he put into some commercials it became twice the pay for Efren. Nevertheless, while acting in commercials he still had another job to pay for car payments, rent, car parts, etc, and he still volunteered at the local theater; his own personal outlet. He would help out with the plays and getting the flyers out. Efren learned this type of work ethic from his parents; they both worked two jobs to give their children better lives. He always thought family is important, and no one should ever forget family comes first.

Even with the strong work ethic Efren had acquired, he still seemed to find himself struggling for money. It was at this point in his life that he moved out of his parent’s house; this was to show to his family he could survive on his own. Also, at this time, the Actors Guild and the Writers Guild went on strike, so he was not acting at this point. So, as income was slim for him, Efren had too much pride for himself to go back to his parent’s house to show that he failed. Efren was about 27 years old at this time and he lived in his car for almost a month, plus he even lived in a hospital. He resorted to a billion odd jobs that varied from teaching kids martial arts to selling medical supplies in Granada Hills and Northridge.

At this moment in his life, a career prospect came knocking on Efren’s door and this was something he could not refuse. He was offered the role of the quietly sincere best friend, Pedro, in the movie, Napoleon Dynamite. He wanted to work on an independent movie so he could be given a character role, and he wanted something to work with. Even though Efren feared being out of theater, with his own way of developing his character the director might not like it, and eventually fire him for not having the director’s vision. But Efren just observed what Jon Heder was doing with his role of Napoleon and he just worked off of Jon. The movie became a sleeper hit during the summer, and still now has a cult following that fans very much love.

The colossal popularity of Napoleon Dynamite did not stop Efren from exploring into different career opportunities. One day he ran into an old buddy he knew who was very knowledgeable with computers. The guy taught Efren how to create music using the computer, and from there they both worked on creating techno music. With the right connections, they started to open and close for bands at raves with their own techno music creation. It was just something they had a lot of fun with. The time that Napoleon came out in theaters they got involved with putting together their own raves. They became a company, studied about production, and learned how to work with an artist. With so many different skills, Efren was happy how his life was going for him.

The success in Efren’s life is due to the love of his family and his community. He follows the philosophy, “Don’t get lost, Don’t lose yourself.” The challenges in his life ranged from learning Spanish to acting against his own age, and he never let anyone tell him he could not do it. He always took a risk, no matter how difficult, and he showed that it is easy to have your dreams come true. On top of acting and being a DJ, Efren has made time to write a book, “Direct Your Own Life: How to Be a Star in Any Field You Choose!” His father preached to him every day of his life with wisdom, “Be different, do something with your life. Be different, do something with your life. Go to school, educate yourself.” Efren followed his father’s thoughts and made something of himself that has not only brought happiness to others, but also to himself. “I did not have Steven Spielberg knocking at my door. I grew up and I did it,” exclaims Efren with quiet realization of how easy it could be for someone to take a risk, look beyond fear, and make that change in their life that will bring them joy.

Article written by Richard Castillo