Actor

1962-08-15 · Puerto Rico · Male

25 series in the catalog

David Zayas (born August 15, 1962) is a Puerto Rican actor. He is best known for his roles as Angel Batista on the Showtime series Dexter, Dexter: New Blood and Dexter: Resurrection and Enrique Morales on the HBO prison drama series Oz.

Early life

Zayas was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and raised in The Bronx, New York.

Career

Zayas joined the United States Air Force at age 19 and was a police officer with the New York City Police Department for almost 15 years. His experience as a police officer allowed him to develop as a character actor, leading to a series of acting jobs on television and film, mainly playing law enforcement officers, but playing characters on the other side of the law, as well, such as Enrique Morales on HBO's long-running prison-drama Oz. Zayas was a main cast member of Dexter for all of its eight seasons and its spinoff series Dexter: Resurrection.

Zayas has been a member of the LAByrinth Theater Company since 1992, a New York City-based traveling actors group. He branched out into television and film projects, and has diversified with guest roles in such popular television series such as New York Undercover, Person of Interest, FBI (playing Mexican drug lord Antonio Vargas), and NYPD Blue. At LAByrinth, he met his future wife, actress Liza Colón.

Zayas played a corrupt police officer in 16 Blocks (2006) and an NYPD officer in Michael Clayton (2007). He is featured in the independent film Shadowboxing (2010), which appeared on the film festival circuit. He appears in Sylvester Stallone's feature film The Expendables (2010) and The Brothers Strause's film Skyline (2010). In 2012, Zayas played Ernie Trask, a hotel super, in the twelfth episode of season 1 of Person of Interest. In 2013 he portrayed Detective Esteban Flores in Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret, a television film about the murder of Travis Alexander.

Zayas portrayed mob boss Sal Maroni in the Batman prequel Gotham, which premiered on Fox on September 22, 2014. Shortly thereafter, he appeared in Annie (2014) as Lou, a gregarious bodega owner who helps Cameron Diaz's Hannigan learn to love herself.

Zayas starred in the 2021 film R#J, a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet. Shaun Munro noted Zayas as one of the few prominent actors present in the film and called him "well-cast in the role of Juliet’s amusingly surly father."

"One on one with David Zayas". HoboTrashcan.com. July 3, 2008.