Danny Trejo

Danny Trejo (Spanish: [ˈtɾexo]; born May 16, 1944) is an American actor. In his body of work he appears as a character actor taking on roles such as inmates, gangsters, or other criminals.

A native of Los Angeles, Trejo's film career began in 1985, when he landed a role in Runaway Train (1985). The first film in which he was given a credited role was as Art Sanella in Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987). He took roles in Desperado, Heat (both 1995), From Dusk till Dawn (1996), Con Air (1997), The Replacement Killers (1998), and Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003).

From 2001 to 2003, Trejo appeared in the Robert Rodriguez-directed Spy Kids franchise as Isador "Machete" Cortez. Trejo reprised his role as Machete in Machete (2010), and its sequel Machete Kills (2013). He has voiced roles such as The Book of Life (2014), Storks (2016), Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019) and Zootopia 2 (2025) as well as in video games including the Call of Duty series from 2010 to 2021. He is known for his frequent collaborations with his cousin Robert Rodriguez on ten films since 1995 and violinist Bruce Dukov on eight films and tv series from Reindeer Games (2000) to Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022). He also worked with co-stars such as Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Quentin Tarantino, Ice Cube, Rob Zombie and Andy Samberg.