Raúl Castillo Jr. (born August 30, 1977) is an American actor and playwright. He is known for his acting roles in Amexicano and Cold Weather and his role as Richie Donado Ventura in the HBO series Looking and its subsequent feature-length series finale Looking: The Movie. He received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in the film We the Animals.
His notable written plays include Border Stories and Between Me, You, and the Lampshade. His works are associated with the LAByrinth Theater Company and the Atlantic Theater Company.
Raúl Castillo Jr. was born to Raúl H. Castillo Sr. and Adela "Adelita" Rodríguez de Castillo. He has an older brother, Tony, and a younger sister. His parents are Mexican immigrants from Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, who later moved to McAllen, Texas, where he and his siblings were raised. His hometown of McAllen was 90 percent Mexican-American. Living so close to the Mexico–United States border, Castillo's family would often visit family members who still lived in Reynosa, affording him an upbringing that he describes as "very much bicultural." Castillo states that growing up in a border town made him feel American when he visited Mexico, but Mexican when he traveled around the United States. He explains he was "too American for Mexico, but too Mexican for the U.S." He was raised Catholic. His childhood nickname was "Gordo" ("fat", in Spanish), due to his weight.
Castillo first became interested in acting in the third grade, after seeing his older brother in a school production of The Wizard of Oz as the Tin Woodman. His brother also was a musician who played guitar, his dedication having been seen by Castillo as he would sit and play scales for hours, which inspired Castillo to use the same technique later for his own performances. He auditioned the next year for a school play, reportedly "about a mouse and a clock", but could not stop giggling during his audition and was cast instead in a non-speaking role as a guard. While in sixth grade at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic School, Castillo met and befriended future Mutemath bass guitarist Roy Mitchell-Cárdenas. Later, in high school, they started an underground punk-rock band called IPM (short for "Influential Phecal Material") together with their friends Nick Trevino and Robert Vleck. Mitchell-Cárdenas played drums while Castillo played bass guitar. Before he began acting, Castillo considered pursuing a serious career as a rock musician.
Castillo states that he started acting when he was 14. Seeking an elective class option when entering McAllen High School, and a way to make friends, he turned to theater, which was popular at his high school. He became deeply involved in the high school drama department, which he says looked "fun". His background playing music since age 11 made performing on stage feel natural for him. His first acting role was in a high school production of Paul Zindel's play The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wild. Castillo also performed in his school’s production of I Remember Mama. It was then, at age 14, that he met and became friends with future staff writer for Devious Maids, Girls and Looking, Tanya Saracho, who also attended McAllen High School. Saracho influenced Castillo greatly, introducing him to playwrights and encouraging to develop his own tastes in drama. Castillo cites the 1993 film Carlito's Way as the film that "changed everything" for him. He was inspired by the performances of John Leguizamo, John Ortiz, Viggo Mortensen, and Luis Guzmán in particular. He even memorized some of Leguizamo's phrases and dialogue, such as "Spic-O-Rama", "Mambo Mouth", and "Freak". Castillo also found inspiration from several Hispanic artists in the media, including Miguel Piñero, and an anthology of works from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. He looked up to several actors, such as Al Pacino and Anthony Quinn, as icons, and spent much of his time watching the film The Outsiders.
After graduating high school, Castillo went on to study playwriting as an undergraduate at Boston University College of Fine Arts, though he continued to act, and majored in theater. During his studies, Castillo felt that the most important skill he developed there was learning how to produce his own work. He would regularly put on plays during the school's student-run playwright's festival. This university offered festival gave Castillo a platform for his original work. Most of his early plays were heavy and serious, dealing with the sociopolitical and racial tensions on the border of Mexico and the United States, including a trio of one-act plays called Border Stories, about life on the Mexico–United States border in Reynosa. He graduated from Boston University in 1999.
Castillo viewed himself as more of a writer, despite his performing abilities. It was not until after college, while performing the lead role in a 2000 production of Santos & Santos at the Nushank Theater Collective in Austin, Texas, that he felt encouraged in identifying as an actor as well. He eventually moved to New York City in 2002, which he describes as the smartest decision he made for his career.
Castillo has an extensive off-Broadway theater career. Right after college, Castillo performed in Austin, Texas in a 2000 production of "Santos & Santos", loosely based on Jamiel Chagra and his brothers. It was during that production that Castillo solidified his confidence in being a professional actor. Castillo joined the LAByrinth Theater Company as a writer shortly after moving to New York. His on-stage acting debut was with the LAByrinth Theater Company's production of José Rivera's play School of the Americas at New York's Public Theater in 2006. There he met actress and later co-star Sandra Oh while she was performing in the Public Theater's production of Satellites. His performance as Beto in the Ensemble Studio Theatre's 2008 production of José Rivera's Flowers was described as "flawlessly nuanced" by Laura Collins-Hughes of The New York Sun. In 2009, he performed in the Off-Broadway premier of Cusi Cram's A Lifetime Burning at Premiere Stages. In 2012, he was cast in Goodman Theater's production of the Cándido Tirado's play Fish Men, about the Guatemalan genocide, in the lead role of Rey Reyes. Castillo also appeared in the 2012 BareBones production of Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train in Pittsburgh, the inaugural performance of which was directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman for the LAByrinth Theater Company. He later was cast in the BareBones reading of The Way West at the Lark Theater. Castillo worked with INTAR Theater, cast in the role of Ismael in the theater's 2014 production of Adoration of the Old Woman to positive reviews. He starred alongside Sandra Oh in the role of Gerardo in the 2014 Victory Gardens Theater production of Death and the Maiden, which was well received by critics. Death and the Maiden deals with the lives of a couple, a woman who has dealt with some of the atrocities that have occurred under a dictatorship. Castillo describes his heavy role as a "character dealing with the bureaucracy of government, trying to look into the crimes that were committed, specifically the deaths that were committed during the dictatorship". Death and the Maiden was originally produced on Broadway with Glenn Close, Richard Dreyfuss, and Gene Hackman, but Latino actors such as Castillo felt undervalued when ethnic characters were not cast in a play by a Chilean playwright.
Castillo first appeared in the 2005 short film Immaculate Perception. He acted in several other short films until his feature film debut role as Ignacio in the 2007 independent film, Amexicano. The film was screened at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival and won the Jury Award for producer/director Matthew Bonifacio in the category of Narrative Film at the 2007 Sonoma Valley Film Festival. The film was released theatrically in 2008. He continued to appear in short films and independent films, such as My Best Day, and Bless Me, Ultima. His role in the 2011 independent film Cold Weather garnered favorable reviews and praise from critic Roger Ebert. His performance as Hector in the 2012 Student Academy Award-winning short film Narcocorrido earned him an Honorable Mention for Performance at AFI Fest 2012. His performance was praised as a "penetrating lead performance that conveys a sense of loss that leaves a lasting mark on the audience.” In 2019, Castillo starred in the independent film El Chicano, drawing praise from The Hollywood Reporter, which noted that his "charismatic performance in the lead role carries much of the film's weight".