Goya Robles

Stage actor and hip-hop/slam poetry artist Goya Robles made a gradual entry into features and television before earning a mainstream showcase in the dark comedy series "Get Shorty" (Epix, 2017-). Born to a family of Puerto Rican and Ecuadorian descent, Robles studied music at the University of Bridgeport and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University. He was made a lifetime member of the Actors Studio in 2010, shortly before making his screen debut in the 2010 short "Utopia Lies at the Horizon." Robles maintained a busy schedule of stage roles in off-Broadway productions, including "Extremities" and "How I Survive," and film appearances in independent crime dramas like "Death of a Gangster" (2012) and "11:55" (2016), with John Leguizamo. He also performed at hip-hop and slam poetry events, and released a debut album, "Spit My Soul," in 2010. In 2017, Robles joined the cast of "Get Shorty," a loose adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel and the 1995 comedy-drama with John Travolta, for Epix. The series, which starred comedian-actors Chris O'Dowd and Ray Romano, featured Robles as the hot-wired nephew of a Southwestern crime boss.