Jose Pablo Cantillo

Indiana native Jose Pablo Cantillo has played men of action operating on both sides of the law over the course of a near-decade-long career that included turns in "The Manchurian Candidate" (2004), "Crank" (2006), "Sons of Anarchy" (FX, 2008-14) and "The Walking Dead" (AMC, 2010- ). The former high school sports star and martial arts student parlayed his natural athleticism into his roles, which ranged from a mob soldier in "Crank" and a hostage negotiator on "Standoff" (Fox, 2006-07), to a vengeful biker on "Sons of Anarchy."

Cantillo moved smoothly between features and television, establishing himself as a versatile character actor while forging important relationships with directors like Jonathan Demme, David Mamet, Neill Blomkamp, who cast him in the dystopian thriller "Elysium" (2013). Cantillo's impressive body of work, culled over a relatively brief period, clearly indicated that he was a star on the rise on both the small and silver screens.

Born March 30, 1979 in Marshfield, Wisconsin, Jose Pablo Cantillo was the youngest of three sons by Dr. Roberto Cantillo and his wife, Rita. Raised in Terre Haute, Indiana, he was active in athletics as a high school student at the town's South Vigo High School, where he helped to lead the tennis team to a state runner-up finish in 1996. The following year, Cantillo began studying finance and marketing at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business while also dabbling in acting classes. After graduating with a double major in finance and marketing in 2003, he landed roles in Off-Broadway productions before relocating to California with his wife, Kristi, to pursue a career in acting.

Roles in episodic television preceded his first feature film appearance in Jonathan Demme's 2004 remake of "The Manchurian Candidate." He took a more substantive role in the low-budget prison drama "Shackles" (2005), playing a convict who displayed a talent for poetry, before landing his breakout role as mobster Ricky Verona in Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor's action thriller "Crank" (2006). Verona injected Jason Statham's hitman with a synthetic drug that required him to remain in a constant state of high agitation, thus fueling the picture's barrage of anarchic and destructive set-pieces.

That same year, Cantillo landed a role as a series regular on the short-lived action-drama series "Standoff," about a pair of hostage negotiators who were also romantically entangled. Cantillo worked steadily over the next four years, logging numerous hours in episodic series like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (CBS, 2000-15) and "The Shield" (FX, 2002-08), while also appearing in such features as "Disturbia" (2007) and David Mamet's "Redbelt" (2008). He also briefly reprised his turn as Ricky Verona in "Crank: High Voltage" (2009), which managed to surpass even the excesses of its predecessor.

The following year, he enjoyed an extended run on "Sons of Anarchy" as the ousted head of a Latino motorcycle club who launched a botched kidnapping in a desperate attempt to regain his title. Cantillo's career reached a high point in 2012 with a supporting turn in the Neill Blomkamp science fiction thriller "Elysium" (2013) and a recurring role in the top-rate AMC series "The Walking Dead." In the latter production, Cantillo played Caesar Martinez, a baseball-bat wielding enforcer for the malevolent Governor, played by David Morrissey.