Raymond Cruz

Cruz, who is of Mexican descent, grew up in East Los Angeles, California, in a neighborhood that regularly saw gang activity, and had relatives in such street gangs as Maravilla and Barrio South Gate. In an interview with The Daily Beast, Cruz stated he witnessed someone shot in front of him when he was 12 years old, noting that "his brains came out the back of his head." For his portrayal of Tuco Salamanca, he was able to relate to his experiences witnessing people who were high on meth.

Cruz has said that becoming interested in American literature early in life helped him avoid joining such gangs himself. His favorite novel is Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. He attended East Los Angeles College.Cruz's film roles include sniper Ding Chavez in Clear and Present Danger, Hector in Out For Justice, Tom Berenger's second-in-command Joey Six in The Substitute, U.S. Marine Sergeant Rojas in The Rock, as Jesus in From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money, USM Private Vincent DiStephano in Alien Resurrection, and Ramirez in Under Siege. He appeared as Chuey, a gang member from the Vatos Locos, in the gang film Blood In Blood Out.

In 2005, he played Chino in Havoc. He appeared in Gremlins 2: The New Batch, credited as "The Messenger," and in Training Day as a gang member named Sniper. He played a Los Angeles firefighter in Collateral Damage. He had guest roles in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Siege of AR-558", The X-Files episode "El Mundo Gira", and the second season of 24. He also made an appearance as the father of a murdered girl in CSI. He played Det Julio Sanchez for the entire seven season run of The Closer and continued in that role for all six seasons of the spin-off Major Crimes.

Cruz performed the relatively short-lived but well-known role of Tuco Salamanca, a sadistic and psychotic meth dealer in Breaking Bad in 2008 and 2009, a role he reprised in 2015-16 during the first two seasons of the Breaking Bad prequel spin-off, Better Call Saul.

He had a recurring role as Paco on My Name Is Earl, and as Alejandro Perez on Nip/Tuck.