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When a sports injury sidelined Adam Rodriguez in high school, his dreams of becoming a professional baseball player were put aside and he turned to acting. His break came when a friend of his father's helped Rodriguez win a guest-starring role on "NYPD Blue."

Rodriguez is also familiar to television audiences from his roles in "Brooklyn South," on CBS, and "Roswell." His additional television credits include "All Souls," "Resurrection Boulevard," "Felicity" and "Ryan Caulfield: Year One." He has also appeared in the feature film "Impostor" and in Jennifer Lopez's video for "If You Had My Love." He was featured in People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" issue and in People en español magazine's "25 Most Beautiful People."

Rodriguez divides his time between New York and Los Angeles. His birth date is April 2.
(courtesy of CBS)
Latino actor and heartthrob Adam Rodriguez found a convenient backdoor to Hollywood success. Proving definitively the old adage that "it's all in who you know," Rodriguez's dad, the longtime COO of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, happened to be watching the Emmys in 1996 and recognized an old army buddy accepting a production award. The gentleman in question had graduated from policeman to NYPD Blue consultant to one of the program's producers. The elder Rodriguez impulsively phoned his pal to congratulate him on the award; this led to a renewed friendship, and in time, a small guest spot for Adam on NYPD Blue. At that point, Rodriguez had only just decided on his true calling in life. A stint of seemingly random occupations (including stockbroker and bellhop) followed by a brief theatrical tenure at the Jersey Peppermill Playhouse convinced the young man that his passion lay in acting. The Emmy incident, as it were, happened almost immediately afterward.

A recurring role on the brief series drama Brooklyn South ensued, followed by a guest spot on Law & Order, then a bit part in the Gary Fleder movie Impostor. Rodriguez attained his first substantial recognition, however, as Jesse Ramirez, an erudite attorney unknowingly saddled with an extraterrestrial girlfriend, on the sci-fi series Roswell. Rodriguez's greatest exposure, however, was still yet to come. Beginning in 2002, he played Eric Delko, drug and fingerprint expert at the Miami-Dade crime laboratory, on CSI: Miami, the first successful spin-off to the crime series phenomenon CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Shortly thereafter, Rodriguez also signed for a part in Jessica Kavana Dornbusch's indie coming-of-age drama Thanks to Gravity (2005), about the trials and travails of a young woman of Jewish-Hispanic ancestry enrolled at Harvard. Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

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